LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



§\nf (Sopi^nsljt ^n- 

ShelfL(ii5.b7 

UNITED STATES OF AllERICA. 



EDITED BY 

WILLIAM T. HARRIS, A. M., LL. D. 



V0LU3IE XVL 



INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION SERIES. 

Edited by W. T. Harris. 



It is proposed to publish, under the above title, a library for teachers 
and school managers, and text-books for normal classes. The aim will 
be to provide works of a useful practical character in the broadest sense. 
The following conspectus will show the ground to be covered by the series : 

I.— History of JEducation. (a.) Original systems as ex- 
pounded by their founders, (b.) Critical histories which set forth the 
customs of the past and point out their advantages and defects, explain- 
ing the grounds of their adoption, and also of their final disuse. 

II.— Educational Criticism, (a.) The noteworthy arraign- 
ments which educational reformers have put forth against existing sys- 
tems : these compose the classics of pedagogy, (b.) The critical histories 
above mentioned. 

III.— Systematic Treatises on the Theory of Edu- 
cation, (a.) Works written from the historical standpoint; these, 
for the most part, show a tendency to justify the traditional course of 
study and to defend the prevailing methods of instruction, (b.) Works 
written from critical standpoints, and to a greater or less degree revolu- 
tionary in their tendency. 

IV.— The Art of Education. (a.) Works on instruction 
and discipline, and the practical details of the school-room, (b.) Works 
on the organization and supervision of schools. 

Practical insight into the educational methods in vogue can not be 
attained without a knowledge of the process by which they have come to 
be established. For this reason it is proposed to give special prominence 
to the history of the systems that have prevailed. 

Again, since history is incompetent to furnish the ideal of the future, 
it is necessary to devote large space to works of 'educational criticism. 
Criticism is the purifying process by which ideals are rendered clear and 
potent, so that progress becomes possible. 

History and criticism combined make possible a theory of the whole. 
For, with an ideal toward which the entire movement tends, and an ac- 
count of the phases that have appeared in time, the connected develop- 
ment of the whole can be shown, and all united into one system. 

Lastly, after the science, comes the practice. The art of education is 
treated in special works devoted to the devices and technical details use- 
ful in the school-room. 

It is believed that the teacher does not need authority so much as in- 
sight in matters of education. When he understands the theory of edu- 
cation and the history of its growth, and has matured his own point 
of view by careful study of the critical literature of education, then he is 
competent to select or invent such practical devices as are best adapted 
to his own wants. 

The series will contain works from European as well as American 
authors, and will be under the editorship of W. T. Harris, A, M., LL. D. 



Vol. I. The Philosophy of Education. By Johann Karl Fjiied- 

RICU ROSENKRANZ. $1.50. 

Vol. II. A History of Education. By Professor F. V. N. Painter, 
of Koanoke, Virginia. $1.60. 

Vol. III. The Rise and Early Constitution of Universities. 

With a Survey of Mediaeval Education. By S. S. Laurie, LL. D., 
Professor of the Institutes and History of Education in the University 
of Edinburgh. $1.50. 

Vol. IV. The Ventilation and Warming of School Buildings. 

By Gilbert B. Morrison, Teacher of Physics and Chemistry in Kan- 
sas City High School. 75 cents. 

Vol. V. The Education of Man, By Friedeicii Froebel. Trans- 
lated from the German and annotated by W. N. Hailmann, Superin- 
tendent of Public Schools at La Porte, Indiana. $1.50. 

Vol. VI. Elementary Psychology and Education. By Joseph 
Baldwin, Principal of the Sam Houston State Normal School, Hunts- 
ville, Texas. $1.50. 

Vol. VII. The Senses and the Will. Observations concerning the 
Mental Development of the Human Being in the First Years of Life. 
By W. Preyer, Professor of Physiology in Jena. Translated from 
tlie original German, by H. W. Brown, Teacher in the State Normal 
School at Worcester, Mass. Part I of The Mind of the Child. $1.50. 

Vol. VIII. Memory. What it is and how to improve it. By David 
Kay, F. R. G. S. $1.50. 

Vol. IX. The Development of the Intellect. Observations con- 
cerning the Mental Development of the Human Being in the First 
Years of Life. Ry W. Pheyer, Professor of Physiology in Jena. 
Translated from the original German, by H. W. BROwN,'Teacher in 
the State Normal School at Worcester, Mass. Part II of The Mind 
OF the Child. $1.50. 

Vol. X. How to Study Geography. By Francis W. Parker. 
Prepared for the Professional Training Class of the Cook County Nor- 
mal School. $1.50. 

Vol. XL Education in the Uniteil States. Its History from the 
Earliest Settlements. By Richard G. Boone, A. M., Professor of 
Pedagogy in Indiana University. $1.50. 

Vol. XII. European Schools. Or what I saw in the Schools of Ger- 
many, France, Austria, and Switzerland. By L. R. Klemm, Ph. D., 
Author of " Chips from a Teaclier's Workshop," and numerous school- 
books. $2.00. 

Vol. XIIL Practical Hints for the Teachers of Public Schools. 

By George Howland, Superintendent of the Chicago Schools. $1.00. 

Vol. XIV. Pestalozzi : His Life and Work. By Roger De Gcimps. 
Authorized translation from the second French edition, by J, Russell, 
B. A., Assistant Master in University College School, London. With 
an Introduction by Rev. R. H. Quick, M. A. 

Vol. XV. School Supervision. By J. L. Piokard, LL. D. 



INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION SERIES ^ ^^ 



HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN 
IN EUROPE 



4/ 



BY 

HELENE LANGE 



TRANSLATED AND ACCOMPANIED BY COMPARATIVE STATISTICS 

By L. R. KLEMM, Ph. D, 




NEW YORK 
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 

1890 






COPTRIGHT, 1890, 

By D. APPLETON AND COMPANY. 



EDITOE'S PREFACE. 



The battle for the higher education of women 
has been fought in this country, but we can not yet 
say that it has been fought out. Up to the genera- 
tion of men now Kving the question had not been 
agitated. The few instances of institutions attempt- 
ing collegiate instruction of women, and the still 
fewer experimenting with co-education in colleges, 
were not accepted as forerunners of a movement 
likely to become general. The majority of public 
high schools throughout the country thirty years ago 
and the normal schools were testing by co-education 
the relative ability of girls to pursue secondary 
studies in the same classes with boys. The result 
is well known. The girls proved their capability to 
perform the same intellectual tasks as boys. What 
they lacked at first in the qualities of originality 
and assimilative power they made up in memory 
and delicacy of appreciation. Many girls excelled 
the average boy even in originality. Alertness and 
versatility were manifested from the first — the well- 
known discriminations which were urged by Dr. 
Clarke many years ago against what he called 



vi HmHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

" identical co-education." He described the female 
characteristics as versatility and periodicity, while 
the male sex possessed persistence and strength. It 
was thought that these distinctions rendered the 
education of the sexes together in the same classes 
undesirable and impracticable. Experience has not, 
however, confirmed the theory. The differences of 
mind, on the whole, when brought to bear on the 
subjects studied in the college or university, tend 
rather to help than to hinder the progress of both 
sexes. Each party gains something from the other 
one's views, and, although the profit of higher study 
is not precisely the same for women as for men, 
there is ample profit for each. Hence co-education 
in college work makes progress continually, and the 
higher education of women in one of the two modes 
— in separate institutions or in co-educating ones — 
is become quite a matter of course. 

Whatever we are accustomed to seems to have 
the ground all to itself as against a newly proposed 
innovation. The unusual appears absurd. But a 
generation of people who have lived through more 
than one radical change of custom gets submissive to 
destiny and hears of new social schemes with com- 
posure. It does not dare to trust any longer its 
sense of the absurd, having learned that manners 
and customs strange to us always seem absurd, and 
that what we practice as the most natural and proper 
thing in the world w^ould have seemed to our grand- 
parents the height of the ridiculous. 

Immediate Kkes and dislikes, based on taste or 



EDITOR'S PREFACE. yii 

habit, are therefore set aside instinctively by us, and 
we endeavor to judge impartially the new order pro- 
posed, and decide its claims on rational grounds. 

What are the grounds for this change of opinion 
on the subject of the higher education of women ? 
Has it always been a desideratum under all stages 
of civilization, or is it only a new thing incident to 
a new order of human development and just now 
become possible ? Or is it perhaps an incident to 
some passing phase of historical growth, and destined 
to disappear as suddenly as it arose ? 

The question of education has reference to voca- 
tion and destiny, for it is a process of preparation 
for an end. The education of woman involves the 
theory of the life sphere of woman. Again, educa- 
tion must be of two kinds — general, fitting each in- 
dividual for his common destiny with all, giving 
him participation with all mankind in the heritage 
of human experience and wisdom that has accumu- 
lated ; special, as fitting each individual for the par- 
ticular calling he shall occupy. 

A study of social and national development will, 
I think, make clear the grounds for customs that 
have prevailed in female education, and prove con- 
clusively that the new social conditions of the pres- 
ent and future demand higher education for woman. 

In the first place, we must note the fact that the 
education of the people as people is itself quite a mod- 
ern thing in history. The victory of productive indus- 
try over nature by the aid of machinery is itself both 
cause and effect of democracy. In the primitive 



viii HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

conditions of society man is not able to provide for 
food, clothing, shelter, and culture except by the 
formation of rigid castes. When natural science 
has come and invention has secured the co-operation 
of the physical forces of nature so as to emancipate 
man from drudgery to some degree then begins the 
abolition of caste, not by the degradation of the 
higher classes, but by the elevation of the lower into 
higher castes. 

It is this process which characterizes our present 
civilization. Education is its most important word, 
because in this is found the means of elevating the 
individual from a lower to a higher caste. 

With the emancipation of the industrial classes, 
we have arrived at the new question of the emanci- 
pation of women so far as sex has produced caste 
limitations in the past. Let us examine these ideas 
more in detail. 

There are three epochs of historic growth or 
social evolution which must be studied in order to 
understand the necessity for the higher education of 
women that has asserted itself in this age. 

I. First, there, is the savage state of man, in 
which the two sexes fall into an antithesis whose ex- 
tremes are drudge and warrior. The education of 
woman in this period consists in acquiring a knowl- 
edge of a few arts and dexterities, including the prep- 
aration of food, clothing, and shelter, and the care 
of the family. The man, on the other hand, gives 
his whole attention to the war and the chase. 
Hunting is, in fact, the only one of the civil occu- 



EDITOR'S PREFACE. ix 

pations which is a training for war. The border- 
land of tlie savage tribe is so near the center of his 
territory, and his diplomacy is so insufficient to 
manage the interests of peace with surrounding 
tribes that he can not sleep in security a single night. 
He must be always on the alert, practicing the arts 
of war and ready by night and by day to repel at- 
tack. The savage man is defender and law-giver, 
the savage woman brings up the family and attends 
to the industries. 

II. The Division of Labor, — The incorporation 
of tribes into nations brings about the second stage 
of society — that in which man is relieved from mili- 
tary duty to a great extent. His border-land is re- 
moved to a distant frontier, and soldiery becomes 
one of the special vocations which a few persons 
engage in. The great majority of men learn the 
arts of peace, and division of labor begins. Woman 
now leaves the sphere of the arts and trades wherein 
most division of labor exists, and retires within the 
family, working at the final processes of preparation 
for immediate consumption — such as cooking, sew- 
ing, mending, and the innumerable arts that go un- 
der- the name of " housework " and the care of help- 
less children or helpless aged. 

III. The Age of Machinery. — The era of pro- 
ductive industry has two distinct epochs. In the 
first there is such specialization of industry that 
each laborer tends to become a mere hand, perform- 
ing a merely mechanical result requiring a minimum 
of directive intelligence in its performance. In the 



X HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

second epoch, labor-saving machinery takes the place 
of the human hand, and the individual laborer as- 
cends to the higher vocation of director or mana- 
ger of a machine. He uses intelligence, works with 
his brain, where before he worked with his muscles 
alone. 

In the lirst epoch, that of the division of labor, 
there prevails a tendency toward infinite subdivision. 
Each special industry is divided and s«bdivided 
again until it seems as though purely mechanical 
labor, entirely devoid of mental effort, would finally 
be reached. With each step toward subdivision and 
specialization the simplicity of the labor increases, 
and it finally becomes easy to invent a machine pro- 
pelled by the blind forces of nature to take the place 
of the human machine. The mechanical occupation 
of the man is now gone, and he has left for him the 
task of connecting and disconnecting the active 
power (steam, water, electricity, etc.) with the ma- 
chine, and of directing its operation upon the mate- 
rial to be elaborated. 

With the first invented machines, only the phys- 
ical labor requiring the most brute strength or me- 
chanical application is conquered, and transferred 
from the hand to the machine. A great deal of 
hand labor, however, still remains in the process of 
directing the application of the machine. The fur- 
ther progress of invention adds more machinery 
to still further emancipate the hand, in this direc- 
tion and application of machinery to the material to 
be manufactured. There arises a constant emanci- 



EDITOR'S PREFACE. xi 

pation of the individual from mere manual labor 
and a continual change of vocations from those re- 
quiring mechanical skill toward those requiring 
intellectual versatility. Not physical strength, nor 
manual skill developed through the long years of 
apprenticeship, is required in the epoch of labor- 
saving machinery. The time required for appren- 
ticeship continually shortens, and the demand for 
ready-educated intelligence grows more imperative. 
Even in our day and generation, early as it is in 
the era of development of productive industry by 
labor-saving machinery, we all recognize the advan- 
tage which the versatility of educated intelligence 
possesses over the skill of the mere hand laborer, 
acquired through a seven years' apprenticeship and 
a score of years of journeymanship. The mere 
hand laborer, skillful and industrious though he be, 
is continually thrown ashore on the strand of pauper- 
ism, because his occupation is gone. A newly in- 
vented machine now performs his labor at so small 
a cost to society that the human machine, in compe- 
tition with the other, can not earn his food and 
clothing. What is left for the individual who has 
sur^dved his vocation ? He must enter a new one. 
After twenty or thirty years of apprenticeship and 
journeymanship all his muscles have become set in 
the direction of special manipulations required in his 
trade, and he can not acquire the new manipula- 
tions necessary to a new trade with the same facility 
of adaptation that belonged to him in early life. 
•Moreover, his intellect, unused and untrained, does 



xii HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

not possess the versatility and directive power re- 
quired in the management of machines. 

Pauperism seems the only result. Great Britain, 
the foremost nation in mechanical invention, fur- 
nishes in times of war when food is dear aid or 
entire support for one million and a half of paupers. 
Of its men, women, and children, one in twenty is a 
pauper. In the United States, the only rival of 
Great Britain in productive industry, paujierism is 
held in check to a greater degree through school 
education and the facilities for migration to unset- 
tled frontiers. 

Face to face with this great question of read- 
justment of vocations, stands this other great social 
question of the determmation of vocation by the 
distinction of sex. 

The transition of civilization from the stand- 
point of thi-alldom to that of freedom has been 
rendered possible through the great movement in 
productive industry just discussed. The immense 
increase of production in the comforts and neces- 
sities of life — food, clothing, and shelter — has lifted 
man above squalor and drudgery to satisfy the pangs 
of hunger and cold. Increasing leisure has been 
given for the culture of his mind and spiritual fac- 
ulties. In consequence of this, the lower and lowest 
strata of society have risen in the scale of educated 
intelligence. Their law-obeying and their law-mak- 
ing powers have increased, and they have demanded 
and received a representation in the government. 

The distinction of sex, as we have seen, availed 



EDITOR'S PREFACE. xiii 

during the epoch of the division of labor to con- 
fine the sphere of woman to the family and to give 
man the province of productive industry. Persistency 
is the type in the field of the division of labor. Perio- 
dicity is the type of labor in the family. Repetition 
of the same thing, concentration upon one thing, is 
the characteristic of labor in the industries. Diver- 
sity and versatility are the characteristics of the 
labor in the family ; engaged this hour in preparing 
the breakfast and washing the dishes; the next 
making the beds and sweeping the rooms ; the next 
cleansing and mending the clothing ; the next knit- 
ting or weaving ; the next, and at intervals during 
the whole day, attending to the myriad wants of 
childhood. 

The labor within the family does not admit of 
division of labor, although it is diversified and in 
need of such division. The woman prepared for 
the life of the family, therefore, needed an education 
which gave her versatility, while the man needed a 
training for concentration upon one thing. 

Persistency and periodicity have, therefore, been 
said to characterize respectively the spheres of labor 
of men and women. Within the family endless 
change from one occupation to one totally difi'erent, 
while in the arts and trades, the sphere of men, there 
has reigned persistence and mechanical concentra- 
tion of will power. Before the era of division of 
labor there was an entirely different condition of 
things. In the savage state, as above shown, when 
the tribal form of government prevailed and the 



xiv HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN" IN EUROPE. 

center of a state or tribal jurisdiction was at the 
most a day's march from a hostile frontier, man gave 
his whole attention to defense and had no strength 
left for productive industry. He faced a hostile 
power, uncertain and indefinite, and was obliged to 
be constantly on the alert. He dissipated his force 
and utterly unfitted himself for dealing with definite 
or routine tasks and prescribed duties. To woman 
belonged then not only the function of family nurt- 
ure, but also the business of providing food, cloth- 
ing, and shelter — the sphere of productive industry. 
Hunting was training for war, and too intermittent 
and dependent upon caprice to rank as a vocation. 
It would seem from this, that in the savage state of 
society woman has the part of providing for what is 
routine and requires persistence ; while man devel- 
ops solely versatility in the form of cunning and 
intermittent effort. In primeval society, woman, 
assisted by children and superannuated men, per- 
forms the labor of the family and civil society. In 
the first epoch of productive industry she limits 
herself to the sphere of the family more and more. 

In the epoch of labor-saving machines the char- 
acteristic mental faculty of versatility that belongs to 
woman creates a louder and louder call for her en- 
trance upon the sphere of productive industry. Not 
physical force but alertness of intellect being needed 
in the industries, woman is preferred for managing 
the power loom and the making of Waltham watches. 
In the last and highest period of industrial develop- 
ment, the distinction between the spheres of the 



EDITOR'S PREFACE. XV 

family and civil society or productive industry is 
removed. Woman needs and receives an education 
in tlie sciences and arts and accomplishments neces- 
sary to man. Besides this, the labor-saving machine 
takes up and performs one after the other each of 
the special industries that formerly belonged to the 
family, and thus emancipates woman from drudg- 
ery. Weaving, knitting, and sewing have, for the 
most part, been left to labor-saving machinery ; the 
other occupations in the preparation of food and 
clothing are rapidly taking the same course. The 
school, itself, already become a vocation established 
for the relief of the family, extends its ministrations 
through the kindergarten and such instrumentalities 
for the further relief of the family. 

The strictly educational influence of the family 
is called nurture. Parental care watches over the 
years of helplessness and slowly trains childhood 
into the forms and conventionalities of civilized life. 
The general characteristic of nurture is the fact that 
physical and intellectual maturity devotes itself to 
the wants and capacities of helpless infancy, and 
with infinite patience draws out and encourages self- 
development and free activity in the child. The 
treatment due to the mature man or woman would 
destroy the child. The fact that the special vocation 
of woman, in so far as determined by sex, involves 
this special feature of nurture furnishes us a signifi- 
cant point to be considered in the discussion of this 
theme. It indicates that, as government comes to be 
less a matter of abstract justice and more a matter 



xvi HIGHER EDUCATION OP WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

of providing for tlie people that wliich will enliance 
tlieir capacity for self -activity, woman's aid will be 
more and more needed in political affairs. Educa- 
tion is one of the functions that appertains to this 
providing for what will further the self-activity of 
its citizens. All of the weaklings of the community 
need more or less to have nurture provided for them 
in the shape of educational and other restraining and 
directing influences. Woman is by nature adapted 
to this work, and w^ill find a very important field 
of activity in this phase of municipal administra- 
tion. 

From these considerations of the trend of social 
evolution we are led to see that the equal education 
of woman with man is certain to prevail in the 
future. 

The age is an age of directive power rather than 
of drudgery, and directive power requires not mere 
persistency but also versatility. 

In this series of educational works we print this 
somewhat special work of Miss Helene Lange on 
the higher education of women in Europe because 
of its interest to English-speaking nations which have 
advanced beyond the first steps and engaged act- 
ively in establishing institutions of various character 
for the higher education of women. In this po- 
lemical work, written for the most conservative 
people in Europe in this matter of female educa- 
tion, we may behold reflected as in a mirror the 
entire movement in all countries, and see all of its 



EDITOR'S PREFACE. xvii 

stages, from the initiation on to the most advanced 
line of progress, in one picture. 

Dr. Klennn, the translator, has completed the 
survey of the entire field by his admirable con- 
spectuses in his introduction. 

W. T. Haeris. 
Washington, D. C, October. 1890. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGB 

Editor's Preface v 

Introduction by the Translator xxi 

Chart I. Ratio of Female Teachers in Elementary Schools xxiii 
" II. Ratio of Female Students in Universities . xxiv 
" III. Ratio of Girls in Secondary Schools . . . xxv 
" IV. Ratio of Mixed Schools (Coeducation) . xxvi 
List of Colleges and Universities for Women . . xxix 
" Other Institutions for the Superior Instruction of 

Women xxix 

" Annexes to Male Colleges and Universities . xxxiii 
" Colleges and Universities for Both Sexes . xxxiii 
Miss H. Lange's Views on Female Education. Intro- 
duction 1 

CHAPTER 

I. Early Movement in England 7 

II. First Female Colleges in England . . .24 

III. Women and the Medical Profession . . .42 

IV. Female Secondary Schools in England . . 61 
V. Moral Education in England and Germany . . 81 

VI. Intellectual Education in England and Germany 98 

VII. In Other Countries of Europe .... 110 

VIII. Why Women should be admitted to Universities . 120 

IX Cause of the Failure in Germany, (a) Adverse 

Circumstances; (b) Man's Unwillingness to aid 

the Cause ; (c) Woman's Indifference . . . 146 



INTRODUCTION BY THE TRANSLATOE. 



The question of higher female education is not 
new in this country, and to some it may seem as 
tliough it had lost the character of a problem with 
us. While it is true that nowhere on the face of 
the earth woman occupies so elevated a position as 
here ; that nowhere is her inborn right to educa- 
tion more readily and willingly acknowledged than 
here ; that nowhere are more schools, colleges, and 
universities open to woman than here ; that no- 
where has woman found so many chances for em- 
ployment in consequence of liberal provisions for 
her education ; and that nowhere has the maxim 
of Diesterweg, " Education is liberation," been 
proved more conclusively than here, it can not be 
said that the facts concerning woman's higher edu- 
cation are as well known as is desirable. This is 
shown by the numerous inquiries sent to the Bu- 
reau of Education, in Washington, concerning the 
progress made in this and other countries. To 
many who know that America has taken the lead 
in this question, it would seem superfluous to learn 
what European nations think and do in regard to 



xxii HIGHER EDUCATION OP WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

it ; but the frequency of the inquiries prove an ever 
growing interest in the matter. Aside from the 
fact that it is always interesting to see what others 
do, it should be borne in mind that our almost in- 
sular seclusion from the European world of thought 
and action is likely to make us exclusive. Hence 
it may prove instructive to learn how the question, 
which with us seems nearly solved, is agitating the 
minds of European educators and legislators. Cast- 
ing about for suitable material to submit to Ameri- 
can readers, the translator came into possession of 
a little book written by Miss Helene Lange * which 
is so characteristic an expose oi the question men- 
tioned, and combines with a historic review and 
vigorous arguments so many valuable statements 
concerning the actual facts in England, France, 
Germany, and other countries, that he concluded 
to render it in English without alterations and 
omissions or additions. It may seem as though the 
work of Helene Lange is only the expression of one 
side, but the frequent mention of men well known 
as educational authorities and her liberal quotations 
from male writers save her from the accusation of 
partiality. Hence w^e may safely " submit the case 
to the jury." The accompanying statistical charts 
(I to TV) are offered with some degree of confi- 
dence that they will meet the demand of the numer- 
ous inquiries. A few explanations seem necessary, 
hence they follow each chart. 

* Frauenbildung, by Helene Lange. Berlin, 1889. L. 
Oehmigke's Verlag. 



Chart I. 
RATIO OF FEMALE TEACHERS 

TO WHOLE NUMBER OF TEACHERS EMPLOYED. 



IN THE 

UNITED STATES, 

IN 1833. 

IN THE CITIES OF 
THE UNITED STATES, 

IM ]888. 



IN ENGLAND,, 



83^ WOMEN. 



90.4% WOMEN. 




IN ITALY, 

IN 1887. 



58%. WOMEN. 
+), THE RATIO OF WOMEN IS ESTTMAIED TO BE. 15^7% IN 



This chart shows the Ratio of Female Teachers to the whole 
number of teachers employed in the public schools of this coun- 
try : (a) for the whole country ; (b) for the cities only* 

The ratio for England was found by taking the number of 
female teachers, assistants, and pupil teachers in all the schools 
of England and Wales receiving state aid (see official report for 
1888). This includes only elementary schools. Hence it does 
not, as in the ratio for our country, include high schools and 
other secondary schools. The ratio for France was found by 
footing up the reports of the different department inspectors of 
France. This was done in preference to using the annual report 
of the Minister of Education for 1886, in order to obtain a more 
recent statement of facts. The ratio of female teachers in Prus- 
sia was obtained from the official report of 1887, the latest in- 
formation obtainable. The same is to be said of Austria, Switz- 
erland, and Italy. 

In order to facilitate the comparison offered, the year of 
which the statistics were taken is stated in each case. 



* See Annual Keport of the Commissioner of Education for 1887-'88, pp. 
rs and 3G0. 



Chart II. 
RATIO OP FEMALE STUDENTS 

TO WHOLE NUMBER OF STUDENTS PURSUING SUPERIOR 
EDUCATION IN UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES. 
IN .THE UNITED STATES, .»... I ^^^_^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 

i29. 3% WOMEN. 70. 7J? MEN. 

IN 'FOUNDATIONS 
GRoups~oF~RELATED i___J|l||HH|^|^HH|Hi^^HHI^H 
"cOl'-JegIs* -7.6^ WOMEN^ 92.4% MEN. 

IN ENGLAND, ^^MHH|^M|^^^^^H^^g^^^^^^^ 

11,'? WOMEN. ' 89% MEN. 

Z;^ WOMEN. ESTIMATED gp,^ MEN. 

100% MEN. 



IN AUSTRIA, ...., 
iN .1889. 



100^ MEN. 

IN SWITZERLAND, ._ ...., ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^■^^^^H 

8;; WOMEN. 92% MEN. 

(N ITALY, _ 



NUMBER oTWoM^N^^^^^i^^J^^^^^^^^JI^^^^^^^ 
STUOYJNG UNKNOWN, 
BU.TVERY SMALL. 

The Ratio of Female Students to the whole number of stu- 
dents pursuing superior education (university and college stu- 
dents) for the United States is given (1) For the whole country 
(excluding all preparatory deparments) ; (2) For institutions 
comprising groups of related faculties and colleges. (See An- 
nual Report of the Commissioner of Education for 1887-88, 
pp. 582 and 624.) For England an estimate of Miss H. Lange 
(see p. 65 of this book) is used; no definite statement has ever 
been published. For France, the olhcial reports do not give 
the desired information, hence an estimate is given whicli is 
based on information contained in The Woman Question, by 
Theodore Stanton. In Prussia, the annual reports mention no 
female students. None are matriculated, hence no degrees are 
conferred upon women. In Austria, women are permitted to 
attend some lectures, but they are considered private students ; 
they are prohibited from matriculation and graduation. Full 
and accurate information concerning Switzerland was obtained 
from the excellent Jahrbuch, of Grob, for 1887-88. The ratio 
given for Italy is based on estimates derived from sundry 
sources, chiefly educational journals. 



IN THE 
UNITED STATES, p 
PUBLIC & PRIVATE INST., [ 
IN 1883. 
IN THE 

UNITED STATES, F 

PUBLIC INST. ONLY, L 

IN 1SS8. 



Chart III. 
RATIO OF GIRLS 

IN HIGH AND OTHER SECONDARY SCHOOLS. 



52.4% G1RJ-S-. 



ESTIMATED AT 307o GIRLS. 




40.9>i BOYS. 



29.5% GIRLS. 



IN SWITZERLAND 



IN ITALY, 

IN ieS7. 




28% GIRLS. 



The Ratio of Girls in hi^h schools or other secondary schools 
g-iven for the United States is taken from the Annual Report of 
the Commissioner of Education for 1887-88. It is given (1) for 
all institutions, public and private schools ; (2) for public schools 
alone. In both cases it exceeds that of the boys. For England 
it is impossible to obtain a correct starement in regard to the 
number of pupils in secondary schools, owing to the fact that 
these schools are not under governmental supervision, hence the 
ratio given in this chart is to be taken " cum grano salisy It 
was based upon statements of Miss Lange, The Educational 
Times (London), Sir Lyon Playfair, and others. For France, 
Prussia, Austria, Switzerland, and Italy, oflficial statements were 
available. It must be taken into consideration, however, in or- 
der to arrive at a proper estimate of the ratios in this chart, that 
many institutions in this country classed among the secondary 
schools are little if anything more than elementary schools ; hence 
it is safe to think that the ratio given for the United States is 
somewhat exaggerated. 



Chart IV. 

RATIO OF MIXED SCHOOLS 

(containing both boys and girls) 

OF the total number of elementary schools. 



INTHE 
UNITED STAVTES, 



IN THE 
UNITED STATES 



96% MIXED SCHOOLS, (only AN ESTIMATE), 

AND 27.4^ MALE STU, 



GIRLS. BOYS. 



,...\ THE NORMAL SCHOOLS riAVE 72.6^ FEMALE STUDENTS 




3% MIXED. 30.9;? GIRLS' SCHOOLS, •*!.&% BOYS' SCHOOLS, 



This chart is intended to show what extent co-education of 
the sexes has found. The ratios of mixed schools (schools in 
which both sexes are taught in the same rooms) are those for 
elementary schools only, except for the United States, where the 
public high schools are included. For this country, however, 
only an estimate could be given, based on information published 
by the Bureau of Education in 1883 (Co-education of the Sexes, 
Circular of Information, No. 2), The most diligent research 
among the statistical material on hand has not sufficed to arrive 
at an accurate statement. The same may be said of England. 
But the official reports of France, Prussia, Italy, and Austria 
were very explicit and accurate concerning this point. For 
Switzerland, the Jahrbuch of Grob (1887) furnished the neces- 
sary information. 

It may be stated here that the statistics of Prussia may be 
taken as a standard of measurement for Germany. The differ- 
ences between Prussia and the other states of Germany are not 
great enough to materially alter the ratios given in the forego- 
ing four charts. 



INTRODUCTION BY THE TRANSLATOR, xxvii 

After this general and graphic presentation of 
statistical facts, it seems desirable to state briefly 
the facilities offered in this country for the higher 
education of women. If this were but to show the 
great difference existing between the Old and the 
New World in the appreciation of the right of 
woman to higher education, the end would justify 
the space occupied. But it is chiefly done to prove 
that in this country the woman question as relating 
to education is scarcely a problem any longer. We 
must for obvious reasons refrain from entering into 
historical statements ; that would necessitate lengthy 
biographical presentations of the lives and public 
efforts of several noble women, such as Mrs. Emma 
Willard, Miss Catherine E. Beecher, Mary Lyon, 
Miss Grant, and others. That, of course, is out of 
the question. The reader is kindly referred to 
Theodore Stanton's book The Woman Question 
and to vol. xi of this series, Boone's Education in 
the United States (page 362 to the end), which 
books contain many valuable details. 

The latest report of the United States Commis- 
sioner of Education (that of 1887-88) groups under 
the head of "superior instruction" all institutions 
the intent and purport of which is an academic and 
professional education (except the normal schools), 
and states the sum total of these institutions to be 
988, the number of their professors 12,409, and the 
number of their students 145,446, itemized as fol- 
lows : 



xxviii HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 



Universities and colleges of arts and 
sciences 

Colleges and seminaries for women. 

Colleges endowed with the national 
land grant 

Schools of science not so endowed. . 

Schools of theology 

Schools of law 

Schools of medicine, dentistry, etc. . 

Totals 



No. of 


No. of 


schools. 


professors. 


357 


4,834 


207 


2,581 


83 


620 


30 


348 


138 


726 


49 


293 


175 


3,007 


988 


12,409 



No. of 
students. 



75,883 
25,318 

8,127 
7,976 
6,512 
3,667 
18,513 



145,446 



Provision for tlie liiglier education of women is 
made {a) in colleges and seminaries exclnsively for 
women, and (b) in co-education colleges. The en- 
tire attendance of young women in tlie several 
classes of institutions for 188Y-'88, so far as re- 
ported, was as follows : 

No. of students. 

Colleges and seminaries for women. 25,318 

Colleges of arts and sciences 16,428 

Colleges of agriculture and the me- 
chanic arts endowed with the 
national land grant 917 ^ 

Total 42,663 



= 29^ of the num- 
ber of students 
in superior in- 
stitutions. 



Of 367 colleges of liberal arts, 217 admit w^omen ; 
of 32 independent colleges endowed with the na^ 
tional land grant, 20 report students of both sexes. 
This gives a total of 237 co-education colleges. Later 
reports may show still larger numbers. 

Nothing seems more conclusive than a perusal 
of the following lists, of which it may be expressly 
stated that the number of students mentioned is that 



INTRODUCTION BY THE TRANSLATOR, xxix 



of the collegiate departments, and does not include 
the students in the preparatory departments. 

I. Colleges and Universities for Women. 

(Institutions marked thus * have a female president.) 



NAME AND LOCATION. 


-5 2 Is 

11 13 

7 70 

15 


•1 

312 

628 
38 
81 
59 
37 

299 
81 

314 


tD 

it 

1875 
1875 
1868 

1835 

1865 
1885 
1837 


ll 


Smith College, Northampton, Mass.* 

Wellesley College, Wellesley, Mass.* 

Wells College, Aurora, N. Y 


54 
62 


Elmira College, Elraira, N. Y 


14 




Ingham University, Le Roy, N. Y 

Rutgers Female College, New York, N. Y. 

Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, N. Y 

Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, Pa 

Mt. Holyoke College, South Hadley, Mass.* 


2 

1 

6 

14 
5 


15 
1 

28 

5 

25 


36 

2 



" This table includes a group of institutions whose admission 
requirements, standards of instruction, and general organiza- 
tion accord with those that have long been characteristic of 
colleges of liberal arts. Their work is essentially collegiate, 
in which respect they differ from the older seminaries for wo- 
men, which, while making more or less provision for the dis- 
tinctive studies of the college curriculum, are schools for gen- 
eral instruction." (Report of Commissioner of Education for 
1887-'88.) 

II. Institutions for the Superior Instruction of Women. 

(Those marked with an * have a female president or principal.) 
In Alabama : Athens Female College, Union Female Col- 
lege, Huntsville Female College, Huntsville Female Seminary, 
Judson Female Institute, Marion Female Seminary, Synodical 
Female Institute, Central Female College, Tuskaloosa Female 
College, Alabama Conference Female College. Total number 
of students: 548. 

In California : The Ellis College, Mills College, Santa Rosa 
Ladies' College. Total number of students : 350. 





XXX HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

In Connecticut: Hartford Female Seminary* Number of 
students: 50. 

In Georgia : Lucy Cobb Institute,* Methodist Female Col- 
lege, Andrew Female College, Dalton Female College, Monroe 
Female College, Baptist Seminary for Young Ladies, Griffin 
Female College, La Grange Female College, Southern Female 
College, Wesleyan Female College, College Temple, Shorter Col- 
lege, Young Female College. Total number of students : 1,055. 

In Illinois : Seminary of the Sacred Heart,* Almira College, 
Illinois Female College, Jacksonville Female Academy, St. 
Mary's School, Chicago Female College, Mt. Carroll Seminary,* 
Rockford Seminary.* Total number of students : 488. 

In Indiana : De Pauw College for Young Women. Num- 
ber of students : 31. 

In loiva : Immaculate Conception Academy,* Callahan Col- 
lege. Total number of students : 149. 

In Kansas : College for Young Ladies,* College of the Sis- 
ters of Bethany. Total number of students : 147. 

In Kentucky : Caldwell College,* Georgetown Female Semi- 
nary, Liberty Female College, Daughters' College, Bethel Fe- 
male College, Hamilton Female College, St. Catherine's Female 
Academy,* Sayre Female Institute, Hampton College, Louis- 
ville Female College, Millersburg Female College, Mt. Sterling 
Female College, Jessamine Female Institute,* Kentucky College 
for Young Ladies, Logan Female College, Science Hill School, 
Stuart's Female College, Stanford Female College, Cedar Bluff 
Female College. Total number of students : 1,127. 

In Louisiana : Silliman Female Collegiate Institute, Mans- 
field Female College. Total number of students : 126. 

In JIaine : Westbrook Seminary and Female College, Wes- 
leyan Seminary and Female College. Total number of stu- 
dents: 255. 

In 3Iaryland : Baltimore Academy of the Visitation,* Balti- 
more Female College, Cambridge Female Seminary, Frederick 
Female Seminary, Lutherville Seminary. Total number of 
students: 363. 

In Massachusetts : Abbot Academy, Lasell Seminary for 
Young Women, Gannett Institute, Bradford Academy,* Wheat- 
on Female Seminary. Total number of students : 348. 



INTRODUCTION BY THE TRANSLATOR, xxxi 

In Michigan: Michigan Female Seminary.* Number of 
students : 41. 

In 3Iinnesota : Albert Lea College, St. Mary's Hall,* Bennett 
Seminary.* Total number of students : 329. 

In Mississippi : Blue Mountain Female College, Whitworth 
Female College, Central Female Institute, College for the Edu- 
cation of White Girls, Corinth Female College,* Franklin Fe- 
male College,* East Mississippi Female College, Union Female 
College, Chickasaw Female College, Port Gibson Female Col- 
lege, Shuqualak Female College, Stark ville Female Institute, 
Lea Female College. Total number of students : 954. 

In Missouri: Christian Female College, Stephens Female 
College, Howard Female College, Fulton Synodical Female Col- 
lege, Woodland College, St. Louis Seminary, Baptist Female 
College, Central Female College, Elizabeth Aull Female Semi- 
nary, Hardin College, Lindenwood Female College, Mary Insti- 
tute, Ursuline Academy.* Total number of students : 1,228. 

In Nevada: Bishop Whitaker's School for Girls. Number 
of students: 73. 

In New Hampshire : Robinson Female Seminary, Conference 
Seminary and Female College, Tilden Seminary. Total number 
of students : 348. 

In New Jersey: Bordentown Female College, St. Mary's 
Hall,* Freehold Young Ladies' Seminary.* Total number of 
students : 113. 

In New York: Academies of the Sacred Heart (3),* St. 
Agnes School,* Brooklyn Heights Seminary, Packer Collegiate 
Institute, Buffalo Female Academy, Granger Place School,* 
Academy of Mount St. Vincent,* Boarding and Day Schools for 
Young Ladies (2),* D'Youville Academy.* Total number of 
students: 1,740. 

In North Carolina: Asheville Female College, Charlotte 
Female Institute, Greensborough Female College, Davenport 
Female College, Baptist Female Institute, Wesleyan Female 
College, Oxford Female Seminary, Estey Seminary, Peace In- 
stitute, St. Mary's School, Statesville Female College,* Thomas- 
ville Female College. Total number of students : 950. 

In Ohio: Bartholomew English and Classical School, Cin- 
cinnati Wesleyan College, Mt. Auburn Young Ladies' Institute, 



xxxii HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

Glendale Female College, Granville Female College, Shepardson 
College,* Hillsborough Female College, Oxford Female College, 
Western Female Seminary,* Lake Erie Female Seminary.* 
Total number of students : 823. 

In Oregon : St. Helen's Hall.* Number of students : 132. 

In Pennsylvania: Allentown Female College, Moravian 
Seminary, Blairsville Ladies' Seminary, Wilson College, Board- 
ing and Day School,* Brooke Hall Female Seminary, Ogontz 
School for Young Ladies,* Philadelphia Seminary,* Pittsburg 
Female College, Washington Female Seminary.* Total num- 
ber of students : 823. 

In South Carolina: Columbia Female College, Due West 
Female College,* Greenville Female College, Walhalla Female 
College. Total number of students : 410. 

In Tennessee : Brownsville Female College, Wesleyan Female 
College, Columbian Athenaeum, Conference Female Institute, 
Cumberland Female College, Soule Female College, Nashville 
College for Young Ladies, St. Cecilia Academy,* Seminary for 
Young Ladies, Martin Female College, Synodical Female Col- 
lege,* Shelbyville Female College, Mary Sharp College. Total 
number of students : 860. 

In Texas : Baylor Female College, Nazareth Academy,* 
Waco Female College. Total number of students : 328. 

In Vermont: Methodist Female College. Number of stu- 
dents: 84. 

In Virginia: Martha Washington College, Albemarle Fe- 
male Institute. Montgomery Female College,* Danville College 
for Young Ladies, Roanoke Female College, Hollin's Institute, 
Marion Female College, Norfolk College for Young Ladies, 
Southern Female College, Staunton Female Seminary, Virginia 
Female Institute,* Wesleyan Female Institute, Fauquier Insti- 
tute, Valley Female College. Total number of students : 727. 

In West Virginia: Broaddus College, Parkersburg Female 
Seminary,* Wheeling Female College. Total number of stu- 
dents: 110. 

In Wisconsin : Wisconsin Female College,* Milwaukee Col- 
lege, St. Clara Academy.* Total number of students : 127. 



INTRODUCTION BY THE TRANSLATOR, xxxiii 

III. Annexes to Male Colleges and Universities. 

Harvard University Annex, Cambridge, Mass., 103 female 
students ; Columbia College Annex, New York, N. Y., 28 female 
students ; Ladies' Annex, Southwestern University, Georgetown, 
Texas, 89 female students. 

IV. Colleges and Universities for Both Sexes. 

A. Foundations comprising Groups of Related Faculties. 

Columbian University, Washington, I). C, 34 female stu- 
dents ; De Pauw University, Greencastle, Ind., 260 female stu- 
dents ; Boston University, Boston, Mass., 256 female students ; 
Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y., 139 female students. 

B. State Universities open to Both Sexes. 
(The numbers in parentheses state the number of female pupils in ISST-'SS.) 
The State universities of California (o4), Colorado (16), Illi- 
nois (58), Indiana (69), Iowa (86), Kansas (55), Michigan (194), 
Minnesota (95), Mississippi (6), Missouri (100), Nebraska (78), 
Nevada (37), Ohio (28), Oregon (9), Texas (42), Wisconsin (104). 

C. Other Colleges and Seminaries open to Women. 

(The numbers in parentheses are the number of female students in the 
State.) 

In Alabama : Selma University (3). 

In Arkansas : Cane Hill College, Little Rock University and 
Philander Smith College (15). 

In California : Pierce Christian College, University of South- 
ern California, Napa College, University of the Pacific, Pacific 
Methodist College, San Joaquin College, Hesperian College (224). 

In Colorado : Colorado College, University of Denver (17). 

In District of Columbia : Howard University (1). 

In Georgia : Bowdon College (37). 

In Illinois : Hedding College, Illinois Wesleyan University, 
Carthage College, Eureka College, Northwestern University, 
Ewing College, Northern Illinois College, Knox College, Lom- 
bard University, Lake Forest University, McKendree College, 
Lincoln University, Monmouth College, Northwestern College, 
Chaddock College, Augustana College, Shurtleff College, West- 
field College, Wheaton College (481). 



xxxiv HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

In Indiana : Franklin College, Hanover College, Hartsville 
College, Butler University, Morris Hill College, Earlham Col- 
lege (163). 

In Iowa'. Amity College, Griswold College, Drake Univer- 
sity, University of Des Moines, Parsons College, Upper Iowa 
University, Iowa College, Lenox College, Simpson College, Ger- 
man College, Cornell College, Oskaloosa College, Penn College, 
Central University of Iowa, Tabor College, Western College 
(547). 

In Kansas: Baker University, College of Emporia, High- 
land University, Campbell University, Ottawa University, Kan- 
sas Wesleyan University, Washburn College, Garfield Univer- 
sity (156). 

In Kentucky : Berea College, Eminence College, South Ken- 
tucky College, Murray Institute (240). 

In Louisiana: Keachie College, New Orleans University, 
Straight University, Tulane University (100). 

In 3Iai7ie : Bates College, Colby University (54). 

In Maryland: Windsor College, West Maryland College 

an 

In Michigan : Albion College, Hillsdale College, Hope Col- 
lege, Kalamazoo College, Olivet College (151). 

In Minnesota : Hamlin University, Carleton College (63). 

In Mississippi : Kavanaugh College (60). 

In Missonri : Pike County College, Lewis College, Pritchett 
Institute, Morrisville College, Washington University, Drury 
College, Tarkio College, Central Wesleyan College, Mary Insti- 
tute, Washington University (289). 

In 3Iontana : College of Montana (14). 

In NebrasTia: Nebraska Central College, Doane College, 
Gates College (126). 

In New 3Iexico : University of New Mexico (50). 

In Neiv York: St. Lawrence University, Syracuse Univer- 
sity (195). 

In North Carolina : Rutherford College, Livingston College, 
Weaverville College, Shaw University (81). 

In Ohio : Buchtel College, Ohio University, Baldwin Uni- 
versity, German Wallace College, Calvin College, University of 
Cincinnati, Adelbert College, Belmont College, Ohio Wesleyan 



INTRODUCTION BY THE TRANSLATOR, xxxv 

University, Findlay College, Twin Valley College, Denison 
University, Hiram College, Mt. Union College, Muskingum 
College, Oberlin College, Rio Grande College, Scio College, 
Wittenberg College, Heidelberg College Urbana University, 
Otterbein University, Wilmington College, University of Woos- 
ter, Antioch College (1,039). 

In Oregon : Pacific University, McMinnville College, Willa- 
mette University (18). 

In Pennsylvania : Lebanon Valley College, Geneva College, 
Dickinson College, Ursinus College, Thiel College, Grove City 
College, Bucknell University, Allegheny College, Central Penn- 
sylvania College, Westminter College, University of Pennsyl- 
vania, Swarthmore College (328). 

In Tennessee : Grant Memorial University, Chattanooga 
University, Bethel College, Maryville College, Milligan College, 
Central Tennessee College, Fisk University, Greenville and 
Tusculum College (72). 

In Texas: Wesleyan College, Salado College, Trinity Uni- 
versity, Baylor University (157). 

In Ve?-mont : University of Vermont, Middlebury College (25). 

In Washington : University of Washington, Whitman Col- 
lege (28). 

In West Virginia : West Virginia College (1). 

In Wisco7isi7i: Lawrence University, Galesville University, 
Milton College, Ripon College (82). 

It is probable that among tlie names of institu- 
tions for liigher education in the foregoing lists 
there are not a few that can not well be classed with 
universities and colleges as these terms are under- 
stood in Europe, but the writer has no means of 
ascertaining their rank or standing. Even if all 
such schools are eliminated from the list, the num- 
ber of tliose who deserve to remain in it would be 
most gratifying to any one who firmly believes in 
woman's higher education. If there be any one 
who does not, the foregoing pages may supply in- 



xxxvi HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOxMEX IN EUROPE. 

formation which is adapted to change his mind. It 

is sincerely hoped that the showing made on the 

comparative charts will aid the cause here and 

abroad. 

L. K. Klemm. 

Washington, D. C, September, 1890. 



HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN 
IN EUROPE. 



INTRODUCTION 

It is one of the symptoms of our time that all 
important journals and magazines open their col- 
umns for discussions of the '' woman question " ; 
that innumerable pamphlets, yes, even yoluminous 
books, are written to bring it nearer a solution. In 
all civilized nations it approaches a solution, and 
lately we frequently meet, in foreign and home 
journals, the statement that the German is the only 
and last great nation of culture which leaves its 
women under the oppression of middle-age fetters, 
keeping closed against them the institutions of high- 
er learning — that is, the requisites of every higher 
professional activity, and thus effectually preventing 
the solution of the burning question, which is only 
possible through intellectual emancipation. The 
absurdity of these conditions is correctly stated by 
Mrs. Kettler when she says : " The education of to- 



2 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

day retains woman in a state of minority or tute- 
lage. ... A child is a minor, hence it is supported. 
The woman is also regarded as a minor — hence she 
must support herself. The child is asked : Are you 
hungry ? Here is bread ; eat. The w^oman is told : 
If you are hungry, earn your bread. See, up yon- 
der are many loaves ; if you reach them, you may 
eat as many as you like ; but mind, don't use that 
ladder to get at them — that's made for men. Per- 
haps a loaf will fall ere long ; only have patience. 
Perhaps they'll come down by themselves ; only be 
patient." '^ 

What is the reason the German woman can not 
obtain what the woman of other civilized nations 
obtained ? Is the reason to be looked for in them- 
selves? Or in the men? Or in insurmountable 
exterior obstacles ? Much depends upon the answer 
to this question ; for it is decisive in the choice of 
roads to be traveled. A study of the development 
of the woman question in other nations perhaps will 
give us a clew. Kindred England seems best suited 
to such consideration and study. It will be neces- 
sary to determine in what regard the movement now 
so happily terminated is typical ; while the special- 
ties traceable to national peculiarities and obvious in 

* Woman's Profession, by Mrs. Kettler, vol. ii, p. 16, Janu- 
ary, 1888. 



DISCUSSION TIMELY. 3 

specifically English institutions must not be made 
subjects of imitation. But that which the English 
women have accomplished recedes behind that which 
women have accomplished ; the national must give 
precedence to the international ; for the woman 
question is an international problem. Common in- 
terests of culture unite the women of all coiontries, 
and it is a beautiful feature of the movement yet so 
young that there exists between the women of dif- 
ferent, and even antagonistic, nations, a mutual ap- 
preciation not always found among men. That is 
the reason why we women are apt to learn of and 
from each other. 

I will preface my essay by stating that I have 
been warned not to make public what these pages 
contain. In the first place, it is argued that this is 
not a time favorable to women; second, it is ap- 
prehended that a cause which may boast of having 
succeeded in England is likely to be discredited in 
Germany. I answer, 1, that I can not see how the 
time can become more favorable for the women 
by patient waiting and ominous silence; 2, that 
the prejudices of the multitude and non-thinking 
people — if at all it should be admitted that truth 
must be treated diplomatically — possibly might 
come into consideration if I had to deal with the 
multitude ; but that is far from being the case. 



4 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

The present book is offered to the thinking 
men and women of the nation ; hence the ap- 
prehensions mentioned are superfluous. I there- 
fore enter upon mj subject without further pref- 
atory remarks. 

About the present Enghsh girl's and woman's 
education there are many erroneous opinions in 
vogue in Germany. We have perhaps given less 
attention during the last twenty years to the educa- 
tional efforts of foreign nations than they deserve, 
and the reforms effected there seem to have become 
known scarcely to the narrowest professional circles. 
Thus w^e hear the English female education again 
and again denounced as below par. That is owing 
to some obvious causes. Twenty years ago, for 
instance, the harshest criticism of the English 
girls' schools was fully justified ; they simj^ly 
could not be worse. He who was in England 
previous to 1868 could not help but come to that 
conclusion. Now, knowing how an opinion once 
generally adopted remains imchanged, even long 
after it has lost its basis of fact, it is not to be 
wondered at that even to this day, in Germany, 
the peo^^le should think so little of English female 
education. 

Again, the experiences made here and there with 
English girls in German boarding schools seem to 



APPEARANCES MISLEADING. 5 

liave given weight to the generally accepted opinion 
or prejudice. That seems an argument of little 
weight. It is well known that a people can only be 
studied in its own native country, never in foreign 
countries, where, through want of familiarity with 
the language and customs, it is at a disadvantage. 
In this particular case there are other considerations. 
1. The education of English young girls is through- 
out different in quality from that of Germ.an young 
ladies. They i^ossibly have knowledge in ancient 
languages and mathematics, which wdth us is not 
considered a female accomplishment, while they are 
deficient in modern languages, literature, and his- 
tory, and hence rarely fit into a school with an 
orthodox course of study. 2. Moreover, by far the 
greatest number of young English women frequent- 
ing German boarding schools come from social 
strata that educate their girls by private governesses. 
Hence an apparent want of knowledge in these few 
pupils should not permit us to argue from them 
upon others, or all others ; and we should certainly 
not reject English higher education on account of 
the few specimens whom we are hardly able to 
judge. 

It is a fact, at any rate, that girls' education, and, 
indeed, the entire female education in England has 
been subjected to a change so radical that it can 



6 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

scarcely be conceived. The most interesting part of 
it is tlie manner in wliicli tliis cliange was brought 
about. The following chapters may attempt to 
show that. 



CHAPTER I. 

EARLY MOVEMENT IN ENGLAND. 

The first traces of the woman's movement in 
England may be found as early as the last century. 
In 1Y92 Mary Wollstonecraft published her Vindi- 
cation of the Eights of Women ; during our century 
Sydney Smith, and above all, John Stuart Mill, with 
the sharpest of intellectual weapons, continued their 
energetic attempts in assisting woman in the acqui- 
sition of her rights — rights that had been suppressed 
since the beginning of the world. The political side 
of the movement shall not here be touched. Toward 
the middle of this century the attempt was made to 
give woman a share of the highest culture of her 
time, and to enable her to contribute to its elevation 
and extension. It was a beginning of a social revo- 
lution at the time when Europe was convulsed with 
the throes of political revolution. People began 
to see that the culture of woman means the culture 
of the people. Hence influential persons tried to 
elevate the education of girls, and since it is but 



8 niGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE, 

logical that if tlie schools should be improved the 
teachers must first be improved — that is, receive the 
proper professional preparation — it was decided to 
beo:in with the establishment of institutions which 
would give adult w^omen and girls beyond school 
age a thorough professional education. The first 
of these institutions, Queen's College^ in London, 
was established in 184:8, with special intention to 
prepare female teachers and governesses. The col- 
lege owes its existence especially to some professors 
of King's College, among whom were Eev. C G. 
Mcolay and Kev. F. D. Maurice. Since the previ- 
ous school education of the students of Queen's Col- 
lege w^as found frequently quite insufficient, prepar- 
atory classes were added. Soon the college courses 
could be extended. They embrace to-day Eeligion 
and Church History, Elementary and Higher Mathe- 
matics, Latin, Greek, Modern Languages, History, 
IsTatural Sciences, Logic, Ethics, and Music. 

Queen's College will always be of great interest, 
being the oldest of the English female colleges ; but 
it is not the type of the present English colleges." 

* The term college is often applied in England to what in 
continental Europe is considered a secondary scliool, the course 
of which is higher than that of an elementary or grammar 
school. In the strictest acceptation of the word it means a 
building (attached to an English university) in which the 
students live together. Since a great part of the studying is 



EAKLY FEMALE COLLEGES. 9 

It has, till the present day, retained the character it 
received at its foundation. It is the only female 
college managed by men. It follows, with the best 
of intentions, a careful system of adaptation in pre- 
senting the matter of instruction to its students, 
which is not compatible with strict science. But 
since the intention is not made secret but stated 
plainly, and publicly at that, no objection can be 
raised."^ The college accomplislies one great object ; 
like the courses which have recently been opened to 
the women in King's College, in London, it offers 
educated, but non-professional persons a chance for 
continuing their studies, and hence resembles in that 
our Victoria-Lyceum (in Berlin). 

A second institution soon followed. During the 
same year (1848) a Miss Keid, in London, was "sur- 
prised" by the receipt of a letter containing the 
information that half a dozen honorable gentle- 
men, at a friendly banquet, had discussed the unsatis- 
factory state of female education, and concluded to 

done in these students' dwellings, the name has in due course of 
time been transferred to other, institutions which offer higher 
education, notably tliose which prepare for the university exam- 
inations, though no boarding and lodging establisliment is con- 
nected with them. 

*"The college does not undertake to provide the full 
instruction which may be required for the degree examinations 
of the University of London." Queen's College Calendar, 1888, 
p. 35. 



10 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

do something to alleviate the wrong done to the 
female sex, since they could not consider it right 
that the many benevolent and charitable institutions 
established for the education of the youth of the 
country should be utilized exclusively by boys and 
young men. 

The half-dozen honorable men, and, in fact, the 
whole letter, proved to be a pious deception of Miss 
Reid, who in this way thought to introduce to the 
public a plan which lay nearest her heart. She had 
aided zealously in founding Queen's College, having 
herself felt acutely the want of higher intellectual 
education, and now intended to establish a second col- 
lege for women in another part of the city, which, 
indeed, in 1849, was opened under the name of 
Bedford College after surmounting great obstacles. 

Bedford College also is still in existence, and has 
the satisfaction of looking back upon a blessed time 
of work. Many thoroughly and highly educated 
women who have devoted their entire lives to the 
cause of their sex, and served it well, were here 
educated. At first it was shaped after Queen's 
College, but later experienced many changes dic- 
tated by the spirit of the time ; so that at pres- 
ent it is a boarding school (properly speaking), and 
prepares students for other colleges, and even for 
the examinations of the University of London. 



CAUSE AND EFFECT, H 

After tliis a longer pause is noticed, for not 
until after 1862 was the miserable condition of fe- 
male education brought to the notice of the pub- 
lic and the question again agitated. It became 
evident that more — much more — must be done for 
the education of young ladies and adults (that only 
women should conduct the institutions for women 
was never doubted) if the lower schools should be 
improved ; but the higher education of adults found 
the most formidable difficulty in the want of proper 
preparation of the students in the lower schools. 
Thus the movement was that of a circle, from which 
an exit has at last been found by artificially induc- 
ing the lower schools to increased exertion and care. 
It is done by introducing a system of official exam- 
inations. 

For many years the so-called junior and senior 
examinations had existed for boys, examinations at 
the ages of fourteen and sixteen respectively, which 
served to prove the existence of a certain amount of 
knowledge desirable at these ages. In 1862 a com- 
mittee was formed which attempted to induce the 
authorities to admit girls to these examinations. In 
1863 a trial examination was held for girls, which 
had very poor results; but this only gave a fresh 
impetus to the workers in the cause, and it is specially 
owing to the exertions of Miss Emily Davies that in 



12 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

1865 the local examinations were offered to young 
ladies in Cambridge, and soon afterward in Oxford. 
Whatever one may think of these examinations, 
wliicli may in the near future become superfluous, 
it is not to be denied that they proved of great 
value for the improvement of female, and particu- 
larly girls', education. If they did nothing else, 
they made it clear that there was much room for 
improvement. 

With an energy without precedent, the English 
women went to work, and the result is fully com- 
mensurate with the efforts made. Within the short 
\ space of twenty years, as said before, England has 
witnessed a complete revolution in female education, 
aided, as that revolution was, by the fact of its 
absolute freedom from governmental interference. 
Of course, higher education of women may miss at 
times the essential aid which a government could 
give it if that government understands its time and 
duties well ; but, on the other hand, it will not have 
to go into the exhausting fight in wliicli many noble 
combatants perish if the government should be op- 
posed to it. 

More and more cleai-ly the women of England 
recognized that if they wished to bring the move- 
ment in favor of hiocher education for the female 
sex to a satisfactory conclusion they must not be 



DIFFERENT EDUCATION FOR WOMEN. 13 

content with insignificant results — tliey must have 
the best the country offers ; that, if they should 
want to keep the higher education of their sex in 
their own hands and fulfill the important task 
imposed upon them, they must not shun the exer- 
tions which man subjects himself to for the purpose 
of fulfilling his task — in short, they must aspire to a 
thorough university education. 

A question may be raised as to the correctness of 
that conclusion. Different tasks, no doubt, are 
assigned to men and women; numerous physical 
and psychical differences between them would indi- 
cate that, and hence point to the necessity of a 
difference in intellectual preparation. On the other 
hand, it is said. There is only one science. Cer- 
tainly. But in the conventional manner of its trans- 
mission, in its preparatory studies, in the entire 
range of universities, there are, according to a 
common judgment, so many points in which reform 
is needed that it is pitiable to think that women 
will have to walk the old worn-out roundabout 
roads where shorter and much better paved roads 
might pleasantly lead them to their goal. But, 
however probable it is that in time to come woman 
will find, or at least seek, her own ways, it does not 
admit of doubt, that at present she is not able to do 
that, being internally not free enough, and that 



14 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

the men would not recognize any other culture as 
profound and sufficient enough, except one like 
their own and acquired like their own. This is a 
truth w^hicli we must recognize in Germany. Thus, 
for instance, experience has by no means proved 
that the higher professional preparation for teachers, 
as it is customary with us, is a good preparation yb/*' 
a teacher of girls ; yet that preparation is thought 
by these teachers the only correct one. Every 
proposition to give female teachers for the upper 
grades a professional training and preparation 
differing from that given to men, however well 
adapted it may be, meets among teachers who are 
known to be friends of the cause w^itli the objection, 
"That would not be scientific." Though, person- 
ally, I consider this objection untenable, and though 
I believe that one might unhesitatingly use other 
roads than the customary ones without falling into 
the error of aiding "half-culture," or adapting 
science to the so-called female capacities (I can, for 
instance, not consent to the roundabout way of 
approaching the sciences through the medium of the 
ancient languages), yet I can understand that in the 
nature of the case the women of England first 
acknowledged the principle : Let women participate 
in the studies of the men, let them follow the same 
courses, hence let them pass the same examinations. 



REASONS FOR HIGHER EDUCATION. 15 

How I feel about this personally I shall reveal 
further on. It must suffice here to state that there 
were reasons of expediency which influenced the 
women referred to. They intended to prove that 
they had the capacity to do what men could do, 
and thus gain confidence in their own mental facul- 
ties. The university courses and the requirements 
for education were well known — they were current 
coin. A new course arranged according to woman's 
views and judgment, even though it might have led 
to better results, would have found no recognition. 
This view was represented with special ardor by 
Miss Davies, who expressed it eloquently in her 
book (published in 1866) on The Higher Education 
of Women. The faults and failings of girls' educa- 
tion as hitherto conducted, the necessity of a radical 
change, the methods to be employed to that end, 
find a thorough and skillful treatment in the book. 
Some parts of it may have impoi'tance only for Eng- 
lish institutions, but most of it is quite a]3plicable 
to German conditions. 

"With great earnestness Miss Davies points out 
the danger lying in the fact that in the age which 
is most important for the develoj^ment of character, 
the years between school and marriage, the girls are 
left without earnest mental occupation ; at best, be- 
ing induced to occupy themselves with some fancy 



IG HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

occupations. What should be done instead ? The 
answer depends upon circumstances. If daugliters 
of the better classes (ladies*), they should receive 
the education of a lady — the highest, most refined 
culture of the time. 

" The accurate habits of thought and the intel- 
lectual polish by which the scholar is distinguished, 
ouglit to be no less carefully sought in the training 
of women than in that of men. Tliis would be true, 
even if only for the sake of the charm which high 
culture gives to social intercourse — a charm attaina- 
ble in no other way. But apart from this consider- 
ation, the duties of women of the higher class arc 
such as to demand varied knowledge as well as disci- 
plined mind and character. Difficult cases in social 
ethics frequently arise on which women are obliged 
to act and to guide the actions of others. However 
incompetent they may be, they can not escape the 
responsibility of judging and deciding. And though 
natural sagacity and the happy impulses, of which 
we hear so much, come to their aid, prejudice and 
mistaken impulses ought also to be taken into the 
account as disturbing elements of a very mislead- 
ing kind. In dealing w^ith social difficulties, the 



* The American reader will kindly bear in mind that Miss 
Laiige writes from the standpoint of the European. 



REASONS FOR HIGHER EDUCATION. 17 

value of a cultivated judgment, able to unravel en- 
tangled evidence and to give due weight to a great 
variety of conflicting considerations, would seem to 
be obvious enough. It would be well worth while 
to exchange the wonderful unconscious instinct by 
which women are supposed to leap to right conclu- 
sions, no one knows how, for the conscious power of 
looking steadily and comprehensively at the whole 
facts of a case, and thereupon shaping a course of 
action with a clear conception of its probable issues. 
Of course, a merely literary education will not give 
this power. Knowledge of the world and of human 
nature, only to be gained by observation and experi- 
ence, go farther than mere knowledge of books. 
But the habit of impartiality and deliberation — of 
surveying a wide field of thought — and of penetrat- 
ing, so far as human eye can see, into the heart of 
things, which is promoted by genuine study even of 
books alone, tends to produce an attitude of mind 
favorable for the consideration of complicated ques- 
tions of any sort. A comparison between the judg- 
ment of a scholar and that of an uneducated man on 
matters requiring delicate discrimination and grasp 
of thought shows the degree in which the intellect 
may be fitted by training for tasks of this nature. 
A large and liberal culture is probably also the best 
corrective of tlie tendency to take petty views of 



18 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

things, and on this account is especially to be desired 
for women on whom it devolves to give the tone to 
society." * 

Equally and even more important a thorough in- 
tellectual education seems desirable for the ladies of 
the upper olasses of a people when the fact is con- 
sidered that upon them devolve the social institutions 
concerning the weal of the poorer classes, hospitals, 
hygienic reforms, educational provisions. Here also 
a clear mind, well trained in thinking, is as essential 
as a warm heart. That finally an extended course 
of study, above all things, is necessary for those who 
are to undertake the office of teaching others, is so 
obvious that it needs no particular emphasis. 

" The incompleteness of the education of school- 
mistresses and governesses is a drawback which no 
amount of intelligence and good-will can enable 
them entirely to overcome. It is obvious that for 
those who have to impart knowledge the primary 
requisite is to possess it ; and it is one of the great 
difficulties of female teachers that they are called 
upon to instruct others while very inadequately in- 
structed themselves. The more earnest and consci- 
entious devote their leisure hours to continued study, 
and, no doubt, much may be done in this way ; but 

* E. Davies, The Higher Education of Women, London, 
1866, pp. 73, etc. 



OBJECTIONS MET. 19 

it is at the cost of overwork, often involving tlie 
sacrifice of health, to saj nothing of the disadvan- 
tages of working alone, without a teacher (often 
without good books) and without the wholesome 
stimulus of companionship." * 

Miss Davies then refers to the numerous objec- 
tions in which the men are so inventive when im- 
provement of female education is concerned. She 
combats them effectually, and then, with clear insight 
into the want of satisfaction arising from study with- 
out guidance and ultimate aim, demands degree- 
examinations for women in the universities. She 
expects an improvement in the entire field of female 
education from such examinations; colleges and 
preparatory schools would be, she thinks, obliged to 
take them into account, and, above all, the appoint- 
ment of teachers would be subjected to a more rigid 
control, and better teachers w^ould be wanted. She 
concludes with pointing out that many of those dif- 
ferences between "male and female occupations," 
*' male and female peculiarities," are raised arbitra- 
rily, and derived from the present state of affairs; 
just as she pointed out in the earlier course of her 
expose that much of what the women demand now 
used to be granted to them unhesitatingly, so that, 

* E. Davies, The Higher Education of Women, p. 73. 



20 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

in fact, tlie present movement simply intends to re- 
cover the former state of affairs, hence that the de- 
fenders of the present state are to be considered the 
reformers. " To create facts," says she, " and then 
to argue from them as though thej were the result 
of an unalterable destiny is a method which con- 
vinces only so long as it is enforced by prejudice. 
' Every one according to his capacity ! ' 'To every 
laborer that work for which he is best suited 1 ' 
These are maxims of unquestioned validity. But 
who shall say for another — much more, who shall 
say for half the human race — this, or that, is the 
measure of your capacity ; this, and no other, is the 
work you are qualified to perform? 'Women's 
work,' it is said, ' is helping work.' Certainly it is ! 
And is it men's work to hinder? The vague in- 
formation that women are to be ministering angels 
is no answer to the practical questions. Whom are 
they to help ? And how ? The easy solution, that it 
is their nature to do what men can not do or can not 
do so well, has never been adopted in practice, inas- 
much as everything in the world that there is to do, 
the care of infants alone excepted, men are doing ; 
and there is nothing that a trained man can not do 
better than an untrained woman." '^ 

* E. Davies, The Higher Education of Women, p. 171. 



WHAT WILL BE THE EFFECT? 21 

Miss Davies finally touches tlie question : What 
will hap|)en when the women seize upon the occu- 
pations of men, and thus injure them ? This is a 
question which appears less urgent than the oppo- 
site party would have us believe, since as long as 
the world will exist the great majority of women 
will find ample occupation in the care of their 
families and the education of their children. Their 
professional engagement will be at best a temporary 
one, but as such it may prove of the highest use- 
fulness. 

" Will not the intrusion of women into profes- 
sions and trades already overcroAvded lower the 
current rate of wages, and by thus making men less 
able to support their families, in the long run do 
more harm than good? As to the manner and 
degree in which the labor market might be affected 
by such a readjustment as is proposed it is difticult 
to predict anything with certainty. It is impossible 
to tell beforehand how many women would take 
to what is called (by a very conspicuous petitio 
prineipii) men's work, and how large a portion of 
their lives they would devote to it. If women 
already destined to work for their bread chose to 
earn it in some hitherto unaccustomed way, it is 
obvious that in the exact measure in which their 
entrance into a new profession reduced the rate of 



22 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

wages in that particular calling it would tend to 
raise it in some other which they would have other- 
wise pursued, and the balance would thus be 
restored. If, on the other hand, women are not 
supporting themselves they are being supported by 
somebody else, consuming either present earnings or 
accumulated savings. To keep them from earning 
money does not prevent their spending it. Let us 
suppose the event, not a very probable one, that the 
introduction of women into the medical profession 
would lower the average rate of remuneration by 
one third, in which case the professional income of 
an ordinary medical man would be lessened in the 
same proportion. Let us suppose also — a not at all 
improbable case — that the doctor's wife, or sister, or 
daughter, would earn, in the practice of lier profes- 
sion, a sum equivalent to the one third he has lost. 
Evidently, the doctor and his family would be where 
they were, neither better nor worse off than before. 
In the mean time, the public would be so much 
richer by getting its medical attendance one third 
cheaper. "Whatever might be the temporary effect 
of opening any particular profession to women one 
thing is certain it can never be for the interest of 
society, in a purely economical aspect, to keep any 
class of its members in idleness. A man who should 
carry one of his arms in a sling in order to secure 



WHAT WILL BE THE EFFECT? 23 

greater efficiency and importance to the other 
would be regarded as a lunatic. The one free mem- 
ber might very probably gain a little extra dexterity 
of an abnormal sort, but that the man would be, on 
the whole, a loser, is obvious. The case of the body 
politic is precisely analogous. The economical 
argument is all in favor of setting everybody to 
work. Such difficulties as exist are of a moral or 
sesthetic nature, and require for their disentangle- 
ment considerations of a different sort from those 
which govern the comparatively easy economical 
question.^ 

*E. Da vies, The Higher Education of Women, p. 173. 



CHAPTER II. 

FIRST FEMALE COLLEGES IN ENGLAND. 

Miss Davies's book only expressed in words 
what moved in the liearts and brains of many peo- 
ple during the decade in which her book appeared 
(1866), and the questions touched upon here came 
up continually in the discussions of the press, and 
found the unreserved approval and support among 
influential men. It was at last concluded to make 
a trial of opening the university courses to woman. 
In 1869 a house was rented in Hitchin, situated 
not far from Cambridge, and some of the fore- 
most professors of the university, who had ex- 
pressed the greatest interest in the experiment, 
were ready to conduct the studies of female stu- 
dents, despite the enormous sacrifices of time and 
personal comfort it would involve. In October, 
1869, six young Avomen congregated at Hitchin to 
begin the new and bold undertaking. They were 
acquainted only with the elements of the ancient 
languages and mathematics, and the modest re- 



FOUNDATION OF GIRTON COLLEGE. 25 

quirements of the " little-go " * seemed to tliem 
enormous. 

After a year of hard work, five of them sub- 
mitted to this " previous " examination. The exam- 
iners had expressed their willingness to test their 
work acccording to the standards set up by the 
university. The result was favorable, and the 
women who had thus won admission to the further 
studies of the university now took up the mathe- 
matical and classical tripos, . and graduated with 
honor after several years of hard toil and labor. 
Meanwhile in Girton, near Cambridge, a site for a 

* The English university examinations consist of " pre- 
vious " (at least in Cambridge), called " little-go " in student's 
slang, and " final " examinations, which latter again consist of 
an easier and a more difficult one. The former, the so-called 
degree examination, secures to the student the degree of 
" bachelor of arts," and is comparatively easy. Li Germany the 
results of English university education are gauged by its require- 
ments, which seems incomprehensible. But of this ordinary 
degree the Englishman thinks very little. He who can afford 
it passes the much more difficult examination " with honors " 
(called "tripos" in Cambridge). The women nowadays 
invariably undertake to prepare for this examination "with 
honors," after having passed the ordeal of the " little-go." They 
do not care for the degree examination. It is not my business, 
nor do I feel inclined to discuss the methods of university 
examination, its many annoyances and unprofitable features. 
They are made by men, not by women, and are not intimately 
related with the question at issue. But of course the women 
have to submit to the institutions as they find them, and must 
not be made responsible for their existence. 



26 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

new female college was bought and tlie erection of a 
new building begun. The means to this enterprise 
Avere raised partly by subscription, partly by a mort- 
gage on the property. '' During the time of the 
erection of the college building," so whites a young 
American lady, a young Girtonian, from whose 
report these data are taken,* ^'students and pro- 
fessors frequently came to the college, and many a 
stone was laid by them vdth their own hands. In 
I 1872 the new institution was oj^ened under the 
name of Girton College, In October, 1873, the new 
buildings were occupied, and since that time the 
interest of the university of Cambridge has been 
more generous to its foster-child than ever." 

The little report referred to appeared in 1876, 
hence shortly after the establishment of the new 
college, at a time in which the university proper 
had not formally sanctioned the institution, in which 
consequently everything depended upon the good 
will of the professors. The reporter can not praise 
enough the sacrifices made by some members of the 
university, who willingly gave up their leisure hours 
in the afternoon in order to come to Girton to give 
their lessons. Girton had at that time no tutors as 
yet, who could only be women. After a description 

* An Interior View of Girton College. Cambridge, 1876. 



TRUE-HEARTED ENGLISH GIRLS. 27 

of the life in college, she finds it difficult to give a 
clear idea of the healthy tone that prevailed there 
without raising in her American readers the suspi- 
cion that the students had belonged to that strong- 
minded type which is justly so much abhorred. 
" Perhaps it can not be stated in any better way why 
this idea is utterly wrong of Girton College students 
than by emphasizing that they were not even con- 
scious of their exposed position and representative 
character. They did not consider themselves at all 
as leaders in a ' cause ' ; they hardly ever mentioned 
among themselves their exposed position before the 
eyes of the public. They were true-hearted English 
girls and women, who worked for the sake of work, 
from their own impulses, with joyful hearts, entirely 
free of that unwholesome aspiration for recognition 
so frequently found among women who are en- 
gaged in intellectual work. Half of the students 
intend to become teachers — not governesses, but 
school teachers and principals. . . . The other half 
of the students at Girton work without a special 
profession in mind." 

Since the appearance of this report more than 
twelve years have passed, and Girton College has 
grown rapidly. The modest building intended only 
to offer room for nineteen students has been ex- 
tended and enlarged to a very stately edifice, which 



28 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

offers room for a hundred students. Sucli a success 
was possible only by the great and active interest 
shown everywhere. Women of intelligence and 
influence, like Lady Stanley of Alderley, Lady 
Goldsmith, Lady Ponsonby, Miss Davies, Miss 
ShireS, sacrificed their time and means to this en- 
terprise ; several legacies covered a great part of the 
building expenses; and the future of the college 
seems now completely secured. According to the 
report of 1887 one hundred and twenty-nine Gir- 
tonians have passed their examinations Avith honors, 
namely, forty-four in classical philology, thirty-six 
in mathematics, one in mathematics and history, 
twenty-two in natural sciences, two in natural sci- 
ences and philosophy, fourteen in philosophj^, eight 
in history, one in modern languages and in theology ; 
besides these, twenty-nine students have passed the 
degree examination of the common '^bachelor of 
arts" standard. 

A remarkably active life — internally and exter- 
nally — fills the vast building. Those who predicted 
a complete ruin of health as a consequence of the 
increased intellectual efforts would be astonished to 
see, instead of expected pale, hollow-chested, over- 
studied blue-stockings, fresh young women of bloom- 
ing color and energetic movements. The extraor- 
dinarily liberal supply of food in the college adds 



THE LIFE OF GIRTON STUDENTS. 29 

undoubtedly to tlie looks and disposition of tlie in- 
mates ; besides, the work itself is in a high degree 
animating, inasmuch as it is more the intellect than 
the memory which is appealed to. Lastly, the re- 
viving effect of fresh air, cold water, and much 
physical exercise, to which the spacious lawns of the 
campus, a gymnasium, and the lovely meadows and 
fields around Cambridge invite urgently — I say a 
faith in the effect of all this is one of the articles 
of the Girtonian creed. In all kinds of weather 
excursions in vehicles, on horseback, or on foot are 
made daily, and on bright afternoons the balls at 
lawn-tennis are seen flying to and fro amid the 
cheerful laughter of the students. 

The external discipline is limited to a few rules, 
absolutely necessary in such a large community ; 
they have reference to coming and going, visits and 
calls, and similar points. In all else the Girtonians 
are perfectly free, and the use they make of their 
liberty shows that they are worthy of it. A certain 
programme has developed, as it were, of itself. The 
day begins at seven o'clock ; at eight divine service 
is held in the session room ; between 8.15 and nine 
o'clock breakfast is taken ; the remainder of the 
morning is devoted to study. Some of the students | 
attend the lectures at Cambridge with the young 
men, or they work with the lady tutors who live in 



30 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

Girton. Some lectures are given in tlie afternoon 
bj the professors coming over from Cambridge. 
Each student receives tlie greatest consideration 
possible regarding her individual studies. At times 
a lecture programme is modified or changed so as to 
accommodate two students, or even one student. 
The excellent state of physical health of the students 
may be accounted for partly by the limitation to 
which the time devoted to instruction is subjected. 
Instead of five lessons, as is the custom in our Ger- 
man seminaries, these students have rarely more 
than two lessons, and that is considered enough, in 
order to afford ample time for preparation and con- 
sultation in private study, which is given great 
weight. Thanks to the generosity of warm-hearted 
men and women, everything can be procured that 
may in any way support this study — a laboratory, a 
spacious library room (which is being filled rapidly), 
•a reading room, and last, but not least, comfortable 
private rooms invite to hard study. Each student 
has two rooms, a study and a bed-room, and with 
the aid of books, pot plants and flowers, pictures, 
rugs, and tidies, she makes her rooms a little home 
of her own. Here the mornings are spent in study 
if there are no lectures on her programme. Lunch- 
eon is served between twelve and three, and work 
is not taken up again before a good deal of physical 



THE LIFE OF GIRTON STUDENTS. 31 

exercise in the open air is taken and the mind has 
been furnished with new elasticity. After dinner, 
which is served at six o'clock, and consists of nutri- 
tious meats, vegetables, and puddings, frequently 
follows music, and even a little dancing. And again 
intellectual work is taken up, but the appearance of 
tea, coffee, or cocoa, brought into the rooms upon 
neat salvers, interrupts work. At times, a tea-party 
in one of the private rooms is held, which, compared 
with the male students' evening amusement behind 
the flowing bowl, is greatly preferable and causes 
less headache. Some of the students go to bed at 
half -past ten, others stay up and study by lamplight 
till midnight. A healthy modesty prevails in all 
their studies far from exaggeration, yet it may be 
claimed that more real work is performed here than 
in male colleges. Young men, having much super- 
fluous time and energy, squander it in pastimes, and 
hence it may be deemed a good thing that the tender 
physical constitution of woman will not admit this 
double exertion. 

The institution is now under the efficient man- 
agement of Miss Welsh, who was among the first 
who started the bold enterprise at Hitchin. A vice- 
mistress, Miss Ward, and a few lady tutors living in 
the college, are her assistants. For these tutorships 
the best selections are made. Thus, philosophy is 



32 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

represented by Miss Constance Jones, wlio passed 
the examination in that branch with the highest 
honors, and who, by introdncing Lotze into England 
and by translating his Microcosmos in a masterly 
manner, has made herself meritorious. For the 
classics (ancient languages and history) Miss Eam- 
say has been acquired. She it was who in 1887 
won the highest honors in the classical tripos, that 
is to say, beat her male competitors. She has been 
introduced to the German female world by an essay 
of Marie von Bunsen.* 

The Times of June 20, 1887, wrote editori- 
ally about her: "Indeed, an astonishing perform- 
ance ! Miss Kamsay competed with young men who 
were known to be the best trained students philo- 
logically of the best schools of the country — and 
she beat them in their o^ti particular domain. 
Yes, she proved herself superior to them by a whole 
class ; she is not only the first of a class to which 
several are admitted — no, she is entirely alone in the 
highest class. To such a distinction no male student 
ever rose ; in no previous year was the difference on 
the field of classics between the first and second 
victor so marked as this year. Miss Eamsay has 
accomplished what no ' senior classic ' ever accom- 

* Die Frau im gemeinmietzigeri Leben, 1888, 1. Heft, p. 69. 



FOUNDATION OF NEWNHAM COLLEGE. 33 

plislied before." Miss Eamsay was then twenty 
years old, that is, several years younger than her 
competitors, but had to comply with all the require- 
ments of examination demanded of the young men. 
In August, 1889, she married a master of Trinity 
College, and hence is going to be lost to Girton. 
It is an interesting fact that the students of Girton 
and ISTewnham, after completing their studies, marry 
soon, and marry men of distinction. Across the 
channel the idea does not seem to prevail that 
woman is to begin to learn after marriage " what- 
ever and as much as the beloved husband wants 
her to know " (Paul de Lagarde). On the con- 
trary, the idea is not so wrong that husband and 
children will fare better in their inner and outer life 
if the wife is a thoroughly educated woman. 

Shortly after the first trial had been made at 
Hitchin, and even before Girton College was fin- 
ished, the establishment of a new college for women 
was commenced. It was to be erected in Cam- 
bridge, and to-day it competes, under the name of 
Newnhain College^ in a pleasant manner with Gir- 
ton. Already it offers a comfortable home to over 
one hundred students. It owes its existence and 
rapid growth above all to the unselfish endeavors of 
one of the most distinguished professors of Cam- 
bridge, Professor Henry Sidgwick, whose wife is a 



34 HIGHER EDUCATION OP WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

niece of tlie Marquis of Salisbury (tlie present prime 
minister of England), and also to tlie present mana- 
ger of tlie college, Miss Anne Clougli. " This 
name," so writes a Newnliam student, " as tlie name 
of one wlio still lives among us, need not be praised ; 
it must be synonymous with a courage and deter- 
mination and a love and unselfishness to which in 
years to come tlie words of Homer will be applied : 
' ou yap TTQ) Tolov^i Xhov ap6pa<; ovSe iScojiaL.^ " * 

This college also found the most abundant sup- 
port, morally and materially, and hence flourishes. 
It had to change its domicile several times before it 
could erect its own buildings. It now consists of 
three halls ; the first was opened in 1875, the second 
in 1885. The ever increasins: number of students 
led to the erection of a third, which was opened in 
June, 1889, at which occasion the Prince and 
Princess of Wales were present. The three build- 
ings are called "Tlie Old Hall," " Sidgwick Hall" 
(under the management of Miss Gladstone, daughter 
of the ex-prime minister), and " Clougli Hall." 

Life passes here in much the same way as at 
Girton, and under the motherly care of Miss Clougli 
the students live happily and judiciously in per- 
forming effective work. The report of 1887 makes 

* " Such men I never yet saw, and hardly ever shall see." 
Iliad, I, 363. 



GROWTH OP FEMALE COLLEGES. 35 

kno\Yn, that, since 1871, one hundred and thirty- 
nine students have passed their examination with 
honors, namely, twenty-iive in classical philology, 
twenty-nine in mathematics, thirty-three in natm^al 
sciences, eighteen in philosophy, twenty-nine in 
history, five in modern languages. Besides this a 
considerable number of women have studied at 
I^ewnham different branches according to their own 
individual needs and inclinations. This is a privi- 
lege offered by JSTewnham which distinguishes it 
from Girton. 

The colleges in Cambridge, however, had still 
many trials and tribulations to pass through before 
they could enjoy the general recognition and the 
secure position which they now enjoy. For ten 
years the students of the two colleges had been 
examined unofficially, depending upon the volun- 
tary service of the professors, not upon an admitted 
right. With the growth of both institutions, both 
internally and externally, the unsatisfactory state of 
dependence was keenly felt, and it was urgently 
desired to acquire a formal right of admission to the 
university examinations. In Cambridge itself little 
opposition was to be feared ; the blameless deport, 
ment and the notable intellectual performances of 
the lady students had disarmed the greater numbei 
of the opponents, and it was certain that among the 



36 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

members of the university living in Cambridge 
there would be a majority in favor of the proposi- 
tion. But one of the regulations of an English uni- 
versity is that its graduates are granted a vote in its 
affairs ; and the men, mostly unenlightened country 
members, were the ones whose prejudices and o]3po- 
sition were feared. 

In 1881 a motion was made to formally grant to 
women the admission to the tripos examinations. 
This motion was to come to a vote in the senate of 
the university on the 21th of February. It was 
seconded by several of the foremost professors. 
"The 21th," says a small report of Newnham 
College Commemoration Bay, "came at last, and 
never before were seen so many old-fashioned 
gowns, that seemed to have lain away unused for 
years, and whose wearers had hastened from all 
parts of England to take part in the memor- 
able senate-session. An unusual number of voters 
were present. Outside, mounted messengers of 
Girton and Newnham waited in breathless expecta- 
tion to take the first news to their colleges. To the 
friends of our cause in the senate the question 
seemed dubious until the vote was taken and the 
solemn and ceremonious ' placet ' or ' non placet ' 
was pronounced by each voter. 

"Even to the most sanguine the result was a 



PRIVILEGES OF MALE COLLEGES. 37 

great and joyful surprise, for our cause had won 
with three hundred and ninety-eight against thirty- 
two votes ; and thus the day was ours. Little was 
done at Kewnham that day, and the groups of ex- 
pectant students in the halls received the bringer 
of glad tidings witli an enthusiasm that will never 
be forgotten by those present. 

" Though it is true that we are not in possession 
of all the privileges belonging to university mem- 
bers, for we only condescend to listen to the lect- 
ures of the professors, just as they formally conde- 
scended to examine us ; yet our success so far gives 
us hope for the future, and now let Newnham's 
red bricks become stone-gray with age in the proud 
consciousness that it is no longer an accidence, a 
stranger, a foundling, but an integral part of the 
University of Cambridge. That is the great event 
which has made the 24th of February, 1881, a red- 
letter day in our calendar." 

Perhaps no fact is better suited to illustrate a 
point than that the English women are never tired 
of emphasizing, with deep-felt gratitude, the unani- 
mous, unselfish support they found among unpreju- 
diced men. 

One more point will have to be mentioned. 
The university grants mitch, but it does not grant ' 
all. It recognizes the applicants for licenses, buti 



38 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

does not recognize tliem as full-fledged members 
of the university — that is to saj, it does not grant 
degrees, such as " bachelor of arts," nor the use of 
the library, laboratories, and museums, although, in 
this respect, the kindness of many of the professors 
have made concessions which are ample enough for 
practical purposes. That the university denies the 
degrees^ that is, the name, while it grants the tiling^ 
has its cause in the circumstance that with the de- 
gree is connected the right to participate in the 
management of the university, and, in certain cases, 
even pecuniary advantages. If the degrees were 
given to women these advantages would have to 
be shared with them ; but, considering the great 
favor the studying women have found in England, 
it is not expecting too much when this last conces- 
sion is hoped to be made ere long."^ Especially is 
this only a question of time, since the University of 
London has meanwhile offered a good example in 
this regard and annuled all differences in the rights 
of male and female students. Since the character of 
the University of London, which is really only a 

* How decidedly this is acknowledged on the part of the 
students is seen from the fact that in the Greek drama, the 
performance of which is considered an event in Cambridge, a 
Girtonian had to take one of the female roles in 1885, and Miss 
Case, of Girton, played the Athene in the Eumenides of -55]schy- 
lus in December of the same year. 



LONDON ADMITS WOMEN. 39 

board of examiners, is quite different from that of 
tlie ancient universities, the consequences of grant- 
ing degrees are different also. 

The next consequence of tlie opening of female 
colleges in Cambridge was the opening of two 
similar institutions in Oxford, Lady Margaret 
Hall and Sommerville Hall. Both have essentially 
the same character as those of Cambridge. 

Then followed, in 1878, the very important step 
mentioned before — the London University opened 
all its grades to women. Several colleges have 
since been established in London intended to i^re- 
pare young women for the university examinations. 
The lectures in University College are attended 
by men and women simultaneously, except the 
purely medical course. Libraries and laboratories 
are both used in common by both sexes, v/ithout 
any of those inconveniences that were formerly 
apprehended, since both sexes meet with all tlie 
tokens of good society — in fact, the position which 
^jie male students have taken in this question is one 
which betrays a high degree of culture and good 
breeding. The female students in the University 
College of London have their own lady superin- 
tendent, Miss Morrison, to whom they may appeal 
for information in all cases ; there is no pressure 
or undue influence exercised upon them in any way. 



40 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

In order to afford tliese students the same advan- 
tages and conveniences for quiet, undisturbed study 
that the students at Cambridge and Oxford have, a 
students' home, College Hall, has been erected in 
the vicinity of University College. This is under 
the management of Miss Grove. In this home a 
number of the female medical school students (of 
which more anon) have found comfortable quarters. 
Smaller colleges (like the Westfield College, at 
Hampstead) try to meet the pressing need felt 
everywhere in London. 

Among the other English female colleges (there 
are some in Manchester, Cardiff, Bangor, etc.) one 
deserves special mention, chiefly on account of the 
incredibly large dimensions of its buildings. It is 
, too young to speak of its results as yet. It is Royal 
i Holloway College, and was opened in presence of 
the Queen of England in 1886. It can be reached 
from London in an hour and a half, and is situated 
in Egham on a little hill in one of the most lovely 
of English landscapes. The edifices are truly 
princely. The sum expended in their erection 
amounts to $3,000,000. They are built in French 
Renaissance style, and surround two large courts. 
The length and breadth, respectively, of the enor- 
mous rectangular building is 550 and 376 feet. One 
can form an adequate idea of the colossal size of the 



HOLLOWAY COLLEGE. 41 

building when it is stated that it has about a thou- 
sand rooms and three thousand windows. It is de- 
signed to accommodate, pleasantly, two hundred and 
fifty students and teachers w4th their servants ; pos- 
sesses a chapel of its own ; a picture gallery worth 
$450,000 ; extensive outhouses used as kitchens, ma- 
chine rooms for steam-heating, electric light, etc. 
This college is under the management of Miss 
Bishop. 

The founder of this college, Thomas Ilollowaj, 
carried out the wishes of his wife, as he expressly 
states in the document of foundation. The college 
is, as stated before, too young as yet to point to any 
results accomplished by it ; it has just completed its 
first year of study, and is obliged to contend with 
many difficulties yet. But in its grandeur (the 
founder has since endowed it with funds) it is an- 
other eloquent proof of the great and large-hearted 
interest which the woman's movement has awakened 
in England. 



CHAPTEE III. 

WOMEN AND THE STUDY OF MEDICINE. 

I In one faculty only the fight against prejudice 
' and professional jealousy has been violent also in 
England, namely, in that of medicine. How the 
woman question plays a rdle in the battle for sub- 
sistence was shown in the vote upon the admission 
of women to the degrees of the London University. 
The greatest liberality was shown by the voters of 
arts and science faculties (which, in England, are 
less of bread and butter studies than in Germany), 
but the most obstinate opposition was raised by the 
medical faculty. In " arts " the vote was eighty 
for and twenty against admission of the women ; in 
'' science " it was eighty-nine for and eleven against ; 
but in " medicine " it was only twenty -one for and 
seventy-nine against. 

The beginning of studying medicine was made, 
as is well known, by an English lady in America. 
Miss Elizabeth Black well, in 1844, addressed let- 
ters to all the thirteen medical faculties then exist- 



WOMEK AND THE STUDY OF MEDICINE. 43 

ing in the United States, praying for admission to 
the study of medicine. Twelve refused the peti- 
tion. One, the Geneva Medical College in 'New 
York, took the case into consideration and resolved 
to submit the question to the decision of the stu- 
dents. A meeting was held, and the students de- 
cided in favor of admitting her ; the students also 
pledged themselves to treat her as gentlemen would 
do, so that she might never repent her entering the 
college. That resolution was carried out. And 
thus the study of medicine was opened to women 
in America, though much contention had to be gone 
through with before the movement gained ground. 
For there were in the medical faculties in America 
men enough who spoke of " the unheard-of presump- 
tion which had filled the petitioner with the desire 
and hope to enter a profession which is reserved for 
the nobler sex ; " and others who asserted, " that it 
was improper and immoral to initiate a woman into 
the nature and laws of lier own organism." 

In England, the fight began in 1860. Miss 
Elizabeth Garrett (now Mrs. Anderson) elected the 
study of medicine, and since it was generally thought 
that the case was an isolated one, which would hardly 
find much imitation or have w^eighty consequences, 
she was permitted to pass the required examinations. 
Although many obstacles were placed in her way, 



44 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

slie succeeded, after five years of hard study, to be 
admitted as a full-fledged i)liysician. When a few 
other women followed her exam]3le, opposition was 
aroused, and led (especially in Edinburgh, where 
Miss Jex Blake, in 1869, had been admitted the 
first female medical student) to very shocking 
scenes, so that Miss Blake, and other young ladies 
who had entered after her, went to London, where, 
with the aid of Mrs. Anderson and Miss Thorne, they 
tried to establish a college of their own. One of the 
most zealous supporters of their cause was a young 
physician. Dr. Anstie, one of the rare, generous 
men who like to use their enthusiasm and energy 
in behalf of the opj^ressed, and to render service to 
an idea. " In his blood," so writes Robert AYilson 
in an article on ^^sculapia Yictrix (from which 
these data are culled), " was a remarkable dash of 
the chivalry of the good olden time, which made 
him kno^vn as the Bayard of his profession, the 
irreconcilable enemy of all in ofiice who use their 
power and prerogatives in oppressing others. His 
social qualities, his scientific and literary talents, and 
the high standing he occupied in the profession, had 
given a weight to his influence which is rarely con- 
ceded to a man of his age, so that when he under- 
took a '^ case " — and he was i-arely without one — 
there were always numerous colleagues of his who 



WOMEN AND THE STUDY OF MEDICINE. 45 

were ready to help liim ; and even those who op- 
posed his ideas as Utopian, reduced their 023position 
as much as possible. From the day on which Dr. 
Anstie became convinced that Miss Jex Blake and 
her companions were the victims of mean persecu- 
tion their battle was half won in London. This is 
plainly visible in the names of the noted men of 
science who, on August 22, 1874, came together in 
his house on Wimpole Street, where it was resolved 
to establish an independent medical college for 
women in London, and to place Dr. Anstie at the 
head of it." 

Twenty-four of the foremost physicians formed 
the board of directors of the new college which was 
opened in Henrietta (now Ilaendel) Street in the 
year 1874. Dr. Anstie, alas, did not live to see that 
day. He died shortly before — a victim of his pro- 
fession — of blood-poisoning, contracted in the dis- 
secting-room. The new school was under the man- 
agement of Dr. Norton till 1883 ; since then Mrs. 
Garrett-Anderson, M. D., is the dean. 

Naturally the young institution was subject to 
many annoying circumstances, and even attacks ; 
but it always found, even in the medical profession, 
generous and unprejudiced men, who supported the 
brave women in their good cause, who granted 
them admission to hospitals and good clinics, and 



46 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

thus, within three years, all difficulties were re- 
moved. The last and most significant step was the 
admission of women to all degree examinations and 
lectures of the London University, since there all 
sciences related to medicine can be studied freely, 
and the professional part, the science of medicine 
proper, is given due attention in a separate college. 
The financial difficulties also were removed, partly 
through subscription, partly through the magna- 
nimity and generosity of friends of the cause. 

He who visits the school of medicine in Haendel 
Street to-day will see in the zealously active (and in 
their activity happy) students, that the hard times 
are passed ; and lie who attends a commencement 
or calls on any other festive occasion will notice the 
friendly intercourse between teachers and students 
and the obvious interest men of high position in 
their profession show in the flourishing institution. 
The house on such occasions is in festive garment, 
the dissecting room is securely closed, the different 
necessary but uneesthetic models and preparations in 
spirits in the museum are hidden from the gaze of the 
public ; on the law^ns, which here as well as elsewhere 
are inclosed within the college w^alls, cheerfulness 
reigns supreme. The foolish prejudice which at 
first barred w^omen the way to the study of medi- 
cine even in England is disappearing more and 



WOMANLINESS. 47 

more, tlioiigli some physicians of higli repute are 
supporting the prejudice with all the energy at 
their command. 

Eobert Wilson, in the book afore-mentioned, 
says : " Whether most of those who entertained that 
prejudice are dead, or whether they have become 
wiser, is difficult to say. English women now 
study medicine and surgery in London, without the 
least opposition in their own college, with profess- 
ors of great repute. . . . And as to 'the world,' 
which once asserted that such extension of the 
* sphere of woman ' would ruin society, that same 
' world ' looks on calmly, apprehending ruin as little 
as an imitation earthquake in a sensational drama 
on the stage makes the real world tremble." 

But not only " society " but also " womanliness," 
a word that plays such an important role among 
the sham arguments of the opponents, is in no dan- 
ger from the study of medicine, as experience 
clearly proves. More than that, the " womanliness " 
of a great number of patients is spared. In nothing 
is seen clearer what nonsense the thoughtless public 
trained by long continued experience is able to 
believe and to defend. Many things, especially in 
the social intercourse of the sexes, are considered 
unwomanly which have not the least objectionable 
feature in them; on the other hand, things have 



48 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

become firmly established customs wliicli are only 
bearable because we have accustomed ourselves to 
them. The same young lady who, by the inexora- 
ble social laws, claims the most tender consideration 
in physical as well as other respects, is obliged to 
submit her physical being to very minute examina- 
tion by a strange man. The contradiction and 
absurdity which lies in this will only be understood 
by future generations, who will have a different 
conception of '' womanliness " than ours. There 
will be a time in which everything Avill be consid- 
ered as belonging to woman's sphere that arises 
from the depths of love and sympathy, of which, 
God be thanked, our sex is rich. Yes, love and 
sympathy are the mainsprings of that passive 
strength which enables the women of England to 
patiently wait for a better time to come. " Because 
we believe that the medical profession offers room 
and work for woman and affords the most womanly 
gifts and virtues opportunities for display, a fact 
which is getting to be generally understood, a new 
group of women, though small, but filled with the 
deepest concern, will matriculate as students of 
medicine. It would probably be a surprise to the 
public (as it was to the present writer) to see how 
extraordinarily insignificant is the amount of 
' strong-mindedness ' (in the common acceptation 



WOMANLINESS. 49 

of the word) among the women who devote their 
lives to medicine. And the fact that this unlovable 
quality shines rather by its absence than by its pres- 
ence, might, if it were generally known and valued, 
lead thinking people to contemplate how little the 
apparent cause of the reproach is derived from the 
position into whicli the pioneers of the movement 
have been placed by arbitrary and unchivalrous op- 
position." * 

Never has a truer word been said. We shall 
have to make the experience, doubtless, in even 
greater degree here in Germany, where the opposi- 
tion of men against a higher education of the female 
sex is more bitter and determined, since the battle 
for subsistence is fiercer. On that account the 
women will have to resolve to fight a hard fight, 
which may not at all be in harmony with their 
natural inclination, but which becomes a matter of 
conscience and necessity on behalf of their own 
sex, and during which many men will have oppor- 
tunities of pointing to the " un womanliness of the 
movement." Alas, many women will be found to 
join them in this denunciation. 

In England, the party of those who consider the 
medical profession unwomanly is fast disappearing. 

* Woman and Medicine. A prize essay, by Edith A. Hunt- 
ley. 1886. 

4 



50 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

" No educated and unprejudiced man believes to-day 
that the medical profession or its practice must 
necessarily demoralize woman. To attend the sick 
has at all times had a peculiar and, it seems, very 
natural charm for women ; hence it is simply contrary 
to common sense to suppose that a woman is com- 
promised in this service, and that she should render- 
it only when it can be done without professional 
preparation, in line, without science. And yet these 
queer people ' who would rather see their daughters 
in their coffins ' than in a sick-room, save when it is 
in the role of nurses, would make us believe it. . . . 
They are wedded to the idea that the presence of 
a woman at a sick-bed must needs injure a woman's 
character if she is not too ignorant to find out what 
is the cause of the disease. But they deceive no 
one. As Emerson says, in his English Traits, most 
Englishmen are godless in their skepticism against a 
theory, but they kiss the ground before a fact. 
Now, what is the fact in this case as most enlight- 
ened men see it? Well, for eleven- years women 
have studied and practiced medicine in England, 
supported by public opinion, without having lost in 
society one iota of respect as daughters, women, and 
mothers, or without having shown the least degener- 
ation with regard to the nobler qualities of heart 
and mind. Cadit qicestio. The majority of Eng- 



WHAT HAS BEEN GAINED? 51 

lislimen unquestionably think, Avith tlie lamented 
Grote, that a woman who shows in her youth real 
love of learning and genuine aspiration, and thus 
becomes able to support herself, should have at least 
the same good chance that a man has to make use of 
her talents as much as possible." * 

IS^ow, what has actually been gained in England 
in medicine ? "What are the chances for women who 
select the medical profession ? According to the 
latest report of the London School of Medicine for 
Women (1888), sixty women have thus far been en- 
tered, by state authority, upon the list of approved 
physicians. Some of them practice medicine under 
favorable circumstances in England, some in other 
parts of Europe, and quite a number in India. But 
as yet there seems to be no occasion to make the 
profession an object of selfish speculation. And it 
is well that it is so — that thus far genuine enthusiasm 
and determined will to bear privation and trouble 
for a good cause are necessary to women who choose 
the medical profession. It is interesting to read 
what Mrs. Garrett-Anderson says on that point. 
" We know very well that the call for female pliysi- 
cians does not come from the highest stratum of 
society, but from the best educated and the poorest 
people. They are not wanted by the little trades- 

* -^sculapia Victrix, p. 31. 



52 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

people nor by indolent fashionable ladies. There 
are two strata of society which offer physicians a 
practice : First, the poor, presumably because the 
eternal melancholy state of their lives undermines 
their health ; the poor are, as is well known, the 
consumers of medicine ' par excellence ' ; second, 
the rich, indolent women, who take little medicine 
but like consultations wdth their pleasant-spoken, 
cheerful physician. These latter can be designated 
as paying patients ; poor women take medicine, and 
rich ^omQw iKvy for it. But it is reasonable to sup- 
pose that to this class of patients female physicians 
will never be as acceptable as male physicians. Now 
if one deducts all the ' line ladies,' all men, and al- 
most the entire middle class, it becomes obvious that 
it will take a long time to obtain a practice, l^oth- 
ing is left but the very poorest people and the pro- 
fessional class, but this latter is in truth the highest 
aristocracy. But even here are obstacles. People 
Avho would not be barred by prejudice to confide to 
a female physician just entering the profession, usu- 
ally have a male family physician, whom to dismiss 
they w^ould justly hesitate, if he has done his duty 
to them. And then beginners in the profession 
naturally meet with distrust, or if not that, want of 
confidence. To this comes a social difficulty — to get 
acquainted. Every young ]3i'actitioner feels this. 



DIFFICULTIES OF FEMALE PHYSICIANS. 53 

!N'o person is apt to confide in a perfect stranger ; lie 
must be known, or, at least, be lieard of. The most 
superficial acquaintance often suffices to make peo- 
ple consult a medical person, probably because most 
people believe in their skill in reading characters ; 
and though they have seen the physician only once, 
they feel to a certain degree whether they can con- 
fide in him or not. Owing to all these causes, it is 
certain to my mind that a woman, though she be 
ever so well prepared professionally, will need to go 
through a certain time of probation before she can 
obtain a practice. But I doubt not that such a 
woman, after a reasonable lapse of time, will gain 
her point." 

To all these difficulties, enumerated by Mrs. An- 
derson, may be added this one : The female physi- 
cians have had, at least until the present time, little 
opportunity to obtain that part of their professional 
training which can begin only after the completion 
of their studies. " When a young man has gradu- 
ated and passed all his examinations he tries to gain 
valuable experience by accepting a position as assist- 
ant physician in a hospital before he settles down to 
practice his profession or accepts a responsible posi- 
tion. But there are only few^ and insignificant pos- 
sibilities of that kind for a woman graduate. When 
she has graduated, and is in possession of her 



54 HIGHER EDUCATION OP WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

diploma, she is at once a full-fledged physician, and 
it is possible that she be placed in a responsible posi- 
tion immediately. Of course, here she is placed on 
tlie same level with men of experience and profes- 
sional reputation; every error she commits is re- 
garded and spoken of as what women can do and 
can't do. However, all that must be expected, though 
it makes the practice of medicine a very difficult 
and responsible one for women. Women wdio un- 
dertake the work must feel the deepest concern; 
must be determined not only to prepare for the ex- 
aminations, but for the most earnest responsibility, 
for which there is no superficial preparation, no 
royal roads, no short cuts. They must expect to be 
subject, for a long time after graduation, to trials 
and tribulations, to tests of critical eyes and unkind 
ears, of microscopes and multiplying glasses applied 
diligently at every error committed. For a long 
time to come they will have to fight an unequal 
fight; but their work is worth wrestling for, and 
their battle, if battle there must be, w^orth being 
fought. Perhaps a future generation will read with 
astonishment of the old dispute about the question 
of 'female physicians,' and scarcely believe that 
there has ever been such a dispute. Meanwhile only 
honest, patient, plodding work, not controversy, can 
win the victory." 



HOSPITALS MANAGED BY WOMEN. 55 

Despite all tlie difficulties mentioned and others 
slighted, a good deal of work has been performed in 
England. Already, hospitals are in operation ex- 
clusively for women, managed only by women. The 
present author will never forget an old laboring 
woman in the ISTew Hospital for Women in Lon- 
don (managed by Mrs. Garrett - Anderson), who 
had been in " many a 'orspital," and who, just be- 
ing operated upon by lady physicians, could not 
praise the fact loud enough that at last women 
were beginning to think of their own sex. She 
had doubtless been treated conscientiously in other 
hospitals, and her loudly expressed gratitude could 
only be explained by the comparatively greater 
comfort of her environments. Iv"owhere were flow- 
ers and pictures wanting ; as far as possible the 
impression of home was made upon the patient. 
To the hospital mentioned physicians of the fore- 
most rank make visits, and whenever the lady 
physicians desire, they are ready to come for con- 
sultations. 

In many cities dispensaries are under female 
management, and, according to the judgment of 
Englishmen, the time is not far distant in which all 
hospitals, schools, dispensaries, workhouses, asylums, 
prisons, reform schools, emigration ships, etc., will 
have their officially appointed female physicians. 



56 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

Wlien that time comes the chances of the profession 
will greatly improve. 

That it should be overcrowded ere long is not to 
be anticipated for several reasons. First, the study 
of medicine is a difficult, expensive study — one 
which requires much time ; hence it will never be- 
come fashionable. On the other hand, it must be 
borne in mind that many of the female physicians 
marry — Robert "Wilson claims that the majority of 
them do. " Indeed, one would almost think that 
men, in queer contrariness, marry the type of women 
whose intellectual inclinations they abhor ; perhaps 
because they cunningly consider marriage the easiest 
solution of the problem of competition." The 
greatest number of the married female physicians 
apply their professional knowledge for the benefit 
of their families, and thus, within a limited sphere, 
do much good. The few who keep up their pro- 
fession after marrying are found to deserve the 
same respect as housewives and mothers that they 
deserve as physicians. The energy and sense of 
duty, so well developed in their studies and profes- 
sion, seems to double their strength. And, finally, 
the demand for female physicians will before long 
increase so rapidly that an overcrowding of the pro- 
fession will not take place in the near future. Eng- 
land has an extended and desirable field in India ; 



FEMALE PHYSICIANS IN INDIA. 57 

desirable not in a pecuniary point of view, but in 
the liigliest degree desirable for those who think 
that alleviating misery and decreasing unbearable 
oppression is the task of woman. Only recently 
the terrible fate of Hindoo women has become the 
object of general sympathy, and with great energy 
English women are working to alleviate it; with 
their medical aid they hope to combine information 
and intellectual assistance in every respect. Since 
to them alone free admittance to the harems and 
zenanas is granted, their influence is very great. A 
society under the protectorate of the Queen has been 
formed, in answer to urgent calls of Lady Dufferin, 
to secure female physicians for India. Since, at the 
same time, the instruction of Indian girls, which was 
formerly given by Brahmans, is more and more in- 
trusted to the hands of women (schools have been 
estabhshed in India which are exclusively under fe- 
male supervision), it is to be hoped that in the 
course of time Indian women may be in a different 
position from the one in which they have been for 
thousands of years. 

Thus, in every direction, to woman is opened a 
bright look into the future. 

Of course, even in England there is an occasional 
opposition ; there are women who predict the rum 
of their sex, men who predict the ruin of science, 



58 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

but tliej become rarer every year. For the position 
of tlie educated gentlemen in the woman question a 
speech of Lord Granville, Chancellor of the London 
University, is significant. lie spoke in June, 1888, 
before an assembly which deliberated upon ways and 
means of procuring sufficient means for College 
Hall, the home of London female students. The 
Times of June 30 reports him to have said : 
" Many years after I first entered public life, any 
one who intended to preface a subject such as we, 
with permission of the Lord Mayor, shall discuss to- 
day, would have been obliged to mention many 
things that are perfectly suj^erfluous to-day. The 
chairman would then have been obliged to call at- 
tention to the fact that although a certain faith ex- 
ists which denies that woman has a soul, it is gener- 
ally more probable that she has not only a soul, but 
also a mind ; that if she has a mind, it might pre- 
sumably be improved by education. He might have 
dared to make a shadowy allusion to the possibility 
that education and training might do for the female 
intellect what it did for the male " (hilarity) ; " but 
as a sensible man he would have followed the advice 
which was given to George Stevenson, not to aim 
too high, and not to admit that a woman could win 
academic degrees as well as a man any sooner than 
ho would admit that a locomotive could ever nm 



LORD GRANVILLPrS OPINION. 59 

faster than fifteen miles an lionr. But the days fol- 
low one another without resembling one another. I 
am sure there is no one in this building to-day who 
will deny that the highest education given under 
rational conditions to woman will be of advantage 
to herself as well as to the community." ("Hear, 
hear!") "But I will not anticipate those who will 
speak to you with conviction of the desirability of 
liigher education for women — a fact of which we, 
as I confidently supjyose, are all agreed. 1 will re- 
strict myself to introducing the discussion of the 
practical and urgent cpiestion, how a comfortable 
and secure home (the previously mentioned College 
Ilall) may be founded for such women who are 
desirous of making use of the higher education 
offered in University College and the Woman's 
Medical School." 

The chairman then remarked that indisposition 
prevented Sir Henry Acland from being present on 
this occasion ; he was a man who merited the high- 
est praise for his support of the cause of higher 
education for women. To judge from his written 
utterances, he woidd have expressed his conviction 
" that sufficient oneans must he procured in order to 
give women as good an education as inen.^'' (" Hear, 
hear ! " and " Bravo ! ") " I may be permitted," con- 
tinued Lord Granville, " to congratulate the students 



60 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

of College Hall for tlieir conduct, their intellectual 
accomplishments, and their results. May their work 
not onlj be crowned with all the honors which the 
university can bestow, but may that work be favored 
by a long, happy, and useful life ! " 

Thus speaks the Chancellor of the University of 
London ! 

This was about the same time in which members 
of the Prussian House of Deputies, who were called 
upon to discuss a bill important for the women of 
Prussia, remarked, " The world will not go to wreck 
and ruin if the women have to wait a little longer." 



CHAPTER lY. 

FEMALE SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN ENGLAND. 

While thus occupied with the highest, that is, 
tlie professional education of women, people in 
England hj no means forgot the secondary schools 
for girls. On the contrary, their reform was un- 
dertaken with rare energy, and in the course of less 
than two decades a grand and complete revolution 
has taken place. 

Two circumstances have greatly facilitated the 
task which English women had set themselves. 
First, no man thought of disputing their right to 
the education of girls and the management of their 
schools. The feeling that for girls' education and 
instruction women above all should be qualified, and 
the idea that in many cases they alone are qualified, 
generally prevails. Women have a seat and vote 
in the municipal school boards. In London people 
insisted that they should be appointed because some 
citizens said : Don't we send girls to school ? Hence 
the difficulty, which with us is greatest, did not pre- 



62 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

sent itself at all in England. It must be admitted 
that the management of such schools by women had 
frequently been quite insufficient, but the cause of 
this was clear, the women had not been trained 
sufficiently. Hence adequate provisions for a 
thorough professional preparation were made. In 
Germany the authorities came to a different conclu- 
sion. Woman's management of schools, as Dr. 
Noldeke quotes disdainfully in his book From 
Weimar to Berlin, has been proved incompetent; 
hence man must take her place. It shall not be 
denied for a moment that man did this in the most 
conscientious manner, but it should be emphatically 
stated that that was a mischievous mistake. Other 
people have said enough on tliat head.* That, 
however, the natural inclination comparatively 
rarely induces the men to devote themselves to 
girls' education, and that bread and butter has 
something to do with it may be seen from the fact 
that in Prussia about 14 per cent of the unen- 
dowed private girls' schools are managed by men, 
86 per cent by women ; while of the well-endowed 
public girls' schools, on the other hand, 92 per 
cent are managed by men, and only 8 per cent 
(mostly Catholic ones) by women. 

* Die hoehere Maedchenschule und ihre Bestimmung. Berlin, 
Appelius, 1888. 



GOVERNMENTAL SUPERVISION OR NOT? C3 

[A graphic presentation will sliow this signi- 
ficant fact more clearly. — Tkanslatok.] 



UNDER WOMEN'S MANAGEMENT. 

I I II J [ l""'^*-^^' 



a 



^GinLS' SCHOOLS. 
PUBLIC I 



02% UNDER MEN'S MANAGEMENT. 

The second circumstance which made the work 
of reform in England so much more easy is the 
vital fact that the middle and highest schools (that 
is, secondary instruction and the universities) in 
England are free from governmental supervision 
and interference. That may in certain cases be a 
great disadvantage, but it may equally often be of 
advantage. It depends greatly upon the initiative 
power of the peoj^le. We have experienced both 
in Prussia, the advantage and the disadvantage. 
There have been times in which the entire school 
system was elevated by a minister of public instruc- 
tion who had a proper and correct conception of 
what the nation needed ; we have had times also 
in which we experienced a reaction that caused 
deep wounds and badly disfiguring scars. 

The development of English life has been such 
that the cultured strata of society would scarcely 
tolerate a state guardianship in the education of 
their children. Noted educational men, among whom 
Bev. Edward Thring, have made bitter opposition 
even to the management of the lower schools by 



64 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

the Government. " For the first time in EngHsh 
history," he says disdainfully, "a despotic power 
lays tracks for the human mind, and demands that 
they be used by all ; and, furthermore, that all, in 
the name of freedom and enlightenment, be coerced 
to pay for it." 

The discussion of the underlying principle, 
whether it is more correct and safer to leave the 
educated classes of society to come to an agreement 
among themselves as to the scope and measure of 
their children's education, and only exercise a cer 
tain control by means of examinations, occasional 
refusal, or grant of certain privileges, or whether 
detailed prescriptions and minute supervision will 
lead to better results lies outside the scope of this 
paper. But it is obvious that in the case under dis- 
cussion, where girls' education is concerned — a thing 
which is and naturally can be undertaken with enthu- 
siasm only by women — absolute freedom of action 
was a great advantage to the English w^omen. That, 
however, a certain uniformity w^as desirable, such as 
is procured by governmental supervision, became 
clear very soon. This was secured by founding a 
society of great extent. In 1871 (chiefly through 
the endeavors of Mr. William Gray) a number of 
men and w^omen came together and founded the 
National Society for improving the Education of 



GIRLS' PUBLIC DAY SCHOOLS. 65 

Women of all Classes. This long title was later on 
abbreviated to Women's Education Union. Lord 
Littleton interested himself vigorously in this union, 
and it is chiefly owing to his efforts that Princess 
Louise, Marchioness of Lome (the sister of our 
Empress Frederick, whose intense interest in all 
educational matters she shares) consented to occupy 
the chair. She has since iiidefatigably worked in 
behalf of the society, which has some of the best 
names of England on its roll of membership. 

One of the main objects the society had in view 
was the establislnnent of good public day schools 
for girls — that is, day schools in contradistinction to 
boarding schools. To this end, a company was 
formed in London, the Girls' Public Day School 
Company, which opened a number of schools after 
the model of the excellent private school of Miss 
Francis Buss. The necessary capital was subscribed 
rapidly, and now that the company has thirty-two 
such schools in activity it yields a considerable divi- 
dend. Up to March, 1888, these schools in London 
had 20,837 enrolled pupils, 32 lady principals, 348 
class teachers, and 130 special teachers. The salary of 
the principal or manager consists partly of a fixed 
annual sum, partly of a percentage of the income, 
which is determined by the number of pupils, so 
that it may vary between £300 and £700 ($1,500 



66 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

and $3,500). Such an income is sufficient for a 
comfortable living even in England. The sum total 
paid for salaries was for 1888 £66,618 ($333,090); 
and for scholarships and prizes the sum of £1,162 
($5,810) was paid. That certainly is a private en- 
terprise which deserves respect. 

This example was soon imitated in all parts of 
England. Other societies were founded which had 
essentially the same object in view, and the number 
of high schools for girls — that is the commonly 
accepted name — is estimated to be one hundred and 
fifty. Their number is steadily increasing. They 
exercise a healthy influence upon the private schools, 
and many a poor private school has given way to 
them. 

The high schools had, above all, the intention of 
removing those faults that the former girls' schools 
had justly been charged with, and which became so 
glaring by the examinations mentioned in the fore- 
going chapters — want of thoroughness and facility 
in the elements, want of system, negligence and 
glittering superficiality, waste of time in favor of 
mere "accomplishments," utter want of organiza- 
tion, etc. It can not be doubted that this has been 
accomplished ; one can not charge the present girls' 
high schools with the foregoing faults. The manag- 
ers (principals) have a thorough education ; special 



NORMAL SCHOOLS FOR WOMEN". 67 

studies are not insisted upon for these ladies. On 
tlie contrary^ it is thought preferable that they 
should have an education which would enable them 
to estimate the value of special studies rather than 
overestimate them, and persons are preferred who 
have had opportunities to learn something more 
than the routine of the school-room. For the 
teachers no definitely prescribed preparation is re- 
quired and no examinations are obligatory as in tlie 
state public schools (the so-called " board schools ''). 
There are, however, special normal schools for 
female teachers of middle and higher schools (in 
Cheltenham, London, and Camljridge), Many 
teachers (their number is increasing) receive their 
professional education here, while others, notably 
those for the higher grades, go through a university 
course and take the place of the former male 
teachers (university graduates). Some of them pass 
the examination in the theory, history, and practice 
of education arranged for, since 1880, in Cambridge 
and in London ; but this is not obligatory. The 
teacher may acquire her know^ledge exclusively in a 
private way ; many of them, especially those for 
modern languages, do it by a sojourn in foreign 
comitries. 

The Englishman j^ays great attention to methods. 
Especially for the German methods as applied in 



08 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

primary schools and develoj)ed in sncli a high de- 
gree, he has great respect. To study tliese meth- 
ods male and female teachers come to Germany 
every year ; the best that can be found is collected 
and made use of after their return. The decided 
disinclination against the often made proposition to 
make obligatory a certain technical, that is, profes- 
sional preparation or the examinations mentioned 
above, has its cause in the undeniable fact that such 
an institution is Hkely to terminate in routine 
derogatory to the development of an effective indi- 
viduality. Hence the professional training and the 
manner of acquiring it is left free. Whether that 
is best or not may be left undecided here. Suffice it 
to say that the arguments brought out in the dis- 
cussion of this question have a certain justification. 
If comparatively rarely pedagogical mistakes are 
noticed in these schools, and rarely violations of 
educational principles (among which violations we 
may class the lecture mania of the academic teacher 
in Germany), it would seem as though great care 
is taken in the selection of teachers and managers. 
Durino^ my visits in these schools I nowhere found 
a case of lecturing over the heads of the pupils. 

In a lecture on English girls' schools recently 
delivered in Berlin, it was alleged that dictating 
played an important role in them, and that the 



METHODS IN FEMALE SECONDARY SCHOOLS. 69 

teachers at their desks were surrounded by piles of 
books — reference and text books. I can not contra- 
dict this experience as a personal one ; neither can I 
confirm it, since within the time of my visits (I 
heard about fifty to sixty lessons in these schools 
and English colleges) I never had an opportunity 
for observing it. I did not hear a single sentence 
dictated. It seems to me that we have here a case 
of too liberal application of a few individual obser- 
vations. It would be committing the same error if 
I should assert nothing was ever dictated in these 
girls' schools. For in the old English school-system 
dictation lessons were the backbone of the instruc- 
tion. I suspect the evil is not entirely unknown 
even among us, but to-day the school authorities in 
England condenm it strongly, and, in fact, all me- 
chanical drilling. Take it all in all, the instruction 
is thorough and is skillfully given ; especially in the 
upper grades I found a very original and spirited 
manner of treating the subject in hand, a method 
which would take up a difficulty in an unusual 
manner and thus awaken interest. 

Among the professional women in England — 
teachers, managers, physicians — whom I have had 
occasion to observe in large meetings that needed 
skillful management, parliamentary and otherwise, 
one will invariably notice now a greater independ- 



70 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

ence and originality than was wont to be found 
twenty years ago in the typical English lady. Her 
more thorough education, her energetic work — in 
which she is supported by good and wise men — has 
matured a self-consciousness and a large-hearted 
view of the world which contrasts favorably with 
the abhorred ''emancipation" in manners of former 
times. It is simply the proof of our thesis. " Man 
grows with his ever higher aims." To us this 
opens a delightful view. Our time will come — 
and we need not fear competition as soon as the 
one thing is granted to us that is needed — to call 
into activity the latent powers, liberty for labor and 
a suitable field for it. 

Though the circumstances mentioned prove their 
reformatory power first upon women who stand 
within the professions, it is unquestionable that a 
much more penetrating reform will result from 
them upon social life, especially since many 
women of the highest classes evince the intensest 
interest in the movement. If social and caste 
prejudices, religious intolerance, and, above all, 
deeply rooted traditions have hitherto played so 
important a rdle in England (otherwise politically 
so free), the women may be said to be the cause 
— that is, the narrow-minded women who grew 
up in prejudices of all kinds But it is the 



SCHOOLS MANAGED BY WOMEN. 71 

women also who have caused or begun the happy 
reform. 

But let us go back to our subject, the high 
schools. Let me try to sketch their organization 
and the system of instruction found in them, and 
give utterance to my opinion concerning them. 

A German visitor is struck by two things at 
once. First, of course, as I said before, the man- 
agement lies entirely in the hands of women ; sec- 
ond, the selection of studies. 

At the head of every English high school stands 
a female principal. The teachers of the school are 
women also, though for some branches men are en- 
gaged who stand in no very close connection with 
the school. Male teachers are not prohibited on 
principle, but men are never engaged if suitable 
women can be had. This holds good only for these 
girls' high schools; in colleges attended by adult 
women the branches are about equally divided 
among male and female professors. In the univer- 
sities the principal studies are all represented by 
men, since the lectures are designed for and attend- 
ed by both sexes — a system which is to be approved. 

Yf ell, how does the system do that is followed in 
the middle schools ? Can women really alone, with 
out male assistance, manage large public schools ? 
The actual results leave it without a shadow jof 



72 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

doubt. The administrative business, for which in 
Germany even well-meaning representatives of the 
interests of women propose a technical manager, is 
conducted admirably. The discipline is excellent 
and is maintained with few and simple means. A 
notable air of good-breeding prevails amid all harm- 
less gayety, and a complete absence of that defiant 
tone noticed among girls in schools managed by 
men. The clock-work of a large school organism 
moves with noiseless steadiness ; the intercourse 
between teachers and pupils is in by far the greatest 
number of cases friendly and hearty ; the moral 
conduct is excellent. Strict honesty tow^ard the 
teachers is a requisite of the good tone of these 
schools ; this honesty is deserved by the confidence 
offered to the children as long as they do not show 
themselves unworthy of it. 

If the picture I have been delineating differs 
advantageously from that which German colleagues 
often present of female teachers in their schools, 
there is a good cause for it. The English teacher 
and principal enjoys unquestioned authority, exter- 
nally and internally. In German public girls' schools 
the older students know, or instinctively feel, that 
the education of the female teacher, obtained in a 
normal school, is despised by the male teachers who 
obtained theirs in the university. It is too obvious 



MEN VUESUS WOMEN. Y3 

that the women are found only in subordinate posi- 
tions (exceptions not counted) of the school organ- 
ism."^ No wonder that the pupils sometimes refuse 
them the respect which is offered as a matter of 
course in England, where the female teachers are 
provided with the highest professional education. 
A harsher tone on the part of the teacher than 
would otherwise be necessary is the inevitable re- 
sult. When w^omen can teach, as in England, and 
God be thanked in German private schools also, as 
long as life is granted them, the remark of Her- 
mann Oeser holds good : " I take it for granted 
that many a female teacher, who asserts her author- 
ity by a sharp tongue, if her male colleagues do 
not trust in her disciplinary power, would under 
changed and better circumstances not take love for 
weakness, nor rigidity in discipline for strength." 
Let us create such circumstances ; let us give our 
teachers a sufficient education, and outwardly that 

* In No. 7 of Buchner's Journal for Female Education (1888) 
a manager of a girls' school remarks incidentally : It is well 
known that female teachers in higher public schools for girls 
have no leading influence. The remark is in harmony with the 
actual facts, alas ! To a foreigner this must appear like irony. 
Female teachers to have no decisive influence in girls' schools ! 
This Journal for Female Education, compared with the more 
liberal conduct of the other journal entitled Girls' Schools (Hes- 
sel and Doerr), has generally taken a position in regard to 
female teachers which can not be harmonized with its title. 
But its manner in arguing can only be useful to our cause. 



74 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

influential position to which thej are entitled, and 
the lamentation of vindictiveness, acidity, want of 
discipline, or whatever is charged against them by 
their colleagues, will soon be silenced. 

Hence, that girls should be managed by women, 
that women should play the leading roles in girls' 
education, can only be approved ; the question is, 
Is the exclusive appointment of female teachers 
desirable ? I have repeatedly asserted that I am not 
of that opinion. I value the acuteness of intellect 
in man too highly to deprive our girls of it; I 
acknowledge that the instruction given by man is, 
owing to his peculiar and to the girl unfamiliar 
mode of thinking, beneficial and stimulating ; pro- 
vided, always, he moves in domains in which the 
individuality of woman does not appear necessary ; 
that is to say, provided that the man does not teach 
branches for which, with untrained girls, similarity 
of thought and feeling and perfect comprehension 
of the girls' nature are indispensable conditions of 
success. Hence I should desire a co-operation of 
men and women in the instruction of girls, of course 
in such a manner that women should have the 
authoritative positions, as would seem but natural. 
This condition of affairs actually exists in German 
private schools for girls, and the satisfaction it finds 
justifies it. 



OVER-VALUATION OF MEN. 75 

Compare the two systems, and we shall come to 
the conclusion that the English public girls' high 
schools are preferable to the German. Better far, 
it would seem, to place the growing generation of 
girls in the hands of women entirely — a partiality 
which finds an analogy in boys' schools exclusively^ 
managed by men — than the unnatural state of affairs 
which puts men into leading positions and the 
w^omen into subordinate ones, and leaves the latterj 
without scientific professional training. We have 
thus far in Germany bred among female pupils an 
over- valuation of men and an under- valuation of 
women teachers and of female capacities. This is 
injurious to the girls' development of individuality, 
portentous also to the fulfillment of their future 
duties. The development of the noblest female 
qualities, which is always dependent upon good 
example, is thus not only not facilitated but even 
hindered. Therein lies the great wrong done our 
higher public girls' schools. 

Considered as an experiment, the English system 
is also very interesting. That which in Germany is 
denied not only by men but also by women (this 
proves how little they study the schools of foreign 
countries), namely, the possibility, is in England 
actually in existence. Women there manage with- 
out the least male assistance large girls' schools 



76 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

which are in no way behind our public schools, yes, 
even give a scientific education more extended than 
ours. Women there prove fully competent for the 
tasks arising from organization, instruction, admin- 
istration and discipline. They do not shrink from 
addressing large assemblies of pupils, for which 
German pedagogues consider the women incapable. 
All that can be observed in Germany also, since 
large private schools are here managed by women ; 
but they are always mentioned as " excej)tions," and 
it is taken for granted that a man must necessarily 
be their regent. Such fictions can not be upheld in 
the light of facts as reported. 

The management by women makes itself felt to 
the German visitor of an English high school in 
some characteristic peculiarities. It is to be traced 
back to female influence that a society has been 
formed for the purpose of decorating school-rooms. 
It is the intention of depriving them of the barrack- 
like appearance. The pupils themselves start win- 
dow-gardens (with pot -plants), or they collect 
minerals and shells or adorn their class-rooms w^th 
pictures. Even the fireplace is filled in summer 
with groups of ferns or large leafy plants. Is it not 
as though we heard Montaigne say, " The school- 
room floor should be strewn with flowers " ? 

Attention is paid to everything pertaining to 



PECULIAR FEATURES. Y7 

health. The school-room furniture is made ac- 
cording to the best system. Each pupil has her 
own desk and seat built according to hygienic rules. 
Excellent devices for ventilation furnish fresh air, 
which is "consumed" in England in incredible 
quantities. The present writer admits that her 
German constitution proved unequal to the cross- 
fire of two or three powerful draughts that played 
upon her during her presence. 

As in colleges, so in high schools much is done 
for bodily exercise ; this is partly done by gymnas- 
tics in which all the girls are exercised daily, though 
it may not be longer than half an hour. Especial 
care is devoted to cleanliness. The arrangements in 
wash and dressing rooms are exemplary. One ex- 
traordinarily practical provision seems to be, that 
every child is obliged to take off her boots and put 
on a pair of low shoes without heels when she comes 
to school. These slippers are placed in a long row 
of numbered pigeon-holes when the children go 
home. Of course the better filled English pocket- 
book explains many things which " we can not un- 
derstand." 

Some few things in these high schools, which 
may not be peculiarly English, yet are in vogue 
all over England, did not find my approval ; thus, 
for instance, frequent examinations, public rewards 



78 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

and prizes, " golden rolls " (merit lists) and similar 
tilings, all seemed to me hazardous. Some princi- 
pals have greatly reduced them in number, and, 
since these things are not the result of uniform rules, 
it is possible to reform readily. But public opinion 
clings to examinations and the marking system so 
pertinaciously that it will not do to remove them ; 
examinations at least will be left to determine pro- 
motions, and hence influence instruction. 

The courses of study of English high schools 
require, like the German gymnasium, an attendance 
till the eighteenth or nineteenth year of age, and 
since the English girl does not enter the social 
world before that age, she is frequently kept in 
school, though she may be excused from a few 
branches. 

As to the instruction itself, it nmst be stated that 
the very first elementary work, reading, writing and 
number work, is not done in these schools, but in 
Kindergartens (sic! Translator), which are but 
rarely in organic connection with the preparatory 
departments of high schools. The pupils enter the 
latter when eight years old. During the first few 
years of the high school course, about the same 
branches are taught as with us, only that English 
does not play the same role that with us German 
plays. The number of hours per week is smaller, 



NORMAL COURSE OF STUDY. 79 

since Saturday is a lioliday. When about twelve 
years old tlie pupils take up Latin and mathematics, 
to which branches an ever increasing amount of 
time and energy is devoted, although not quite as 
much as is required in boys' schools. The time is 
gained at the expense of the instruction in the 
mother tongue and foreign modern languages, fre- 
quently also at the expense of history. A normal 
course of study has not been prescribed for all the 
girls' high schools, since it was deemed wiser to leave 
free elbow-room to the individuality of the mana- 
gers. That despite this there is an approximation 
of uniformity is owing to the fact that the pupils 
frequently submit to the " junior and senior " exam- 
inations, and the fact that many of these students, 
after graduating from the high school, enter the 
university, explains the preponderance of classical 
and mathematical studies in the upper grades. 

The same Latin and Greek authors are read 
(Greek is an optional study) as w^ith us. In geom- 
etry Euclid is finished to Book XI ; in algebra they 
go to quadratic equations. In the upper grades 
many studies are optional. 

" One has every reason," says Dr. C. Schoell in 
Schmidt's Encyclopaedic (2d edition, vol. 3, p. 1130), 
" to be satisfied with the results of these schools. 
They insist upon thoroughness in instruction and 



80 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

shunning mere empty show. The results of ex- 
amination in the different branches, such as Bible 
knowledge, geography, mathematics, German, have 
been, so far, very satisfactory. . . . Experience has 
proved that good women do not fall behind men in 
circumspect management, in discipline, and in im- 
parting knowledge." This expression, being that 
of a man, has double value inasmuch as Schoell's 
criticism of English schools is generally very sharp. 
But there is one reflection in regard to these 
high schools which I can not dismiss. They have a 
right, certainly, to expect to be judged by their re- 
sults, and these consist unquestionably in a thorough 
intellectual education. 'No doubt that much can be 
done and that much is done. It is precisely what 
has been aimed at and what has been acccomplished 
in boys' schools. But is that system justified ? 
Should a formal intellectual education be end and 
aim of any school ? I must go farther back to an- 
swer that question. 



CHAPTEK Y. 

MORAL EDUCATION IN ENGLAND AND GERMANY. 

There is a charming French fairy-tale told 
by Jean Mace. It tells of a little boy who was 
always the first in school and had learned wonder- 
ful things there : he knew when Rome was founded, 
could distinguish a principal sentence from a rela- 
tive clause, and knew the governmental depart- 
ments of the Loire by memory as though he had 
them on a string. He had a little girl friend who 
had learned but one thing: '''' II faut obeir au hon 
Dieu et etre hon comme ltd avec tout le monde " 
(One must obey the good God and be good like 
Himself to every one). The boy, of course, soon 
finds that his little friend is hardly a suitable play- 
mate for him. A kind fairy takes both by the 
hand and leads them first to a great historian, then 
to the foremost authoress of the land ; finally she 
transports them through time and space into future 
ages, and into the center of Africa, w^iich then is 
the most civilized country on the face of the earth. 



82 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

Everywhere tlie boy is abashed. The historian 
shows him how httle his knowledge about the 
foundation of Eome is confirmed ; the authoress 
laughs at his statements of grammar-rules, and no- 
body knows anything of the departments of the 
Loire in those future ages, simply because they 
have disappeared during a great earthquake in the 
year 2500 after Christ But every one bows down 
before what the little girl has learned, and even 
after thousands of years the highest wisdom is : 
" Ilfaut oheir au hon Dieu et etre hon comme lui 
avec tout le monde^^ 

That is, reduced to a formula ; Moral truth is 
more important than knowledge. 

But that does not end the matter. The ques- 
tion now arises : What is moral ? IIoio far and 
how can it influence the will of the child ? And, 
lastly, what has school to do with it ? "What is 
moral \ The child in the fairy-tale says : " /Z faut 
obeir a\i hon Dieu et etre hon oomme lui avec tout 
le "inonder The philosopher says : Moral is that 
which has become the practice of the majority, and 
by means of which the greatest possible happiness 
is secured to mankind. 

The two sentences are related to each other like 
the ideal and the attainable. To be good like God 
to every one is acting to man like Providence. It 



THE PRINCIPLES OF MORALITY. 83 

presupposes divine perfection, omniscience, and in- 
infinite wisdom. That is unattainable, though it 
should direct our aspirations. And it is well that 
humanity should forever have an unattainable aim^ 
an ideal. The way to it is shown by those who 
have a heart full of divine pitying love They are 
the greatest of mankind. To them we look up ; 
we honor them like gods ; " their example teaches 
us to believe in God." 

To do what has become the practice of the 
majority and will secure the greatest possible hap- 
piness to all — that is attainable, at least in thought. 
The principles according to which we must fashion 
our actions to gain that end, men seek by hard 
intellectual work ; in their coarsest form the statute 
law expresses them. The errors and faults of the 
law make appear the idea or conception of moral- 
ity for the time being, which idea always depends 
upon the intellectual standpoint reached. This 
leads us on to morality, religion, science. 

The close relation between morality and intel- 
lect is a truth which the fairy-story can not teach 
us ; in this, as in so many other things, a sharp 
definition must be made possible by analysis, be- 
fore a conclusion by synthesis is reached. For us 
adults, however, the statement that for true moral- 
ity not only will-power but also judgment is neces- 



84 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

sary, and a correct estimation of things, persons, 
actions, and ideas, seems a hackneyed truism. An 
auto da fe does not appear moral to us, though it 
be dictated by the purest of convictions ; even the 
senseless self -sacrifice of a mother v^^ho by her ac- 
tion brings up an egotistical weakling of a son, 
can not appear moral to us, however much we may 
value self-sacrifice. 

Mankind in its infancy could believe the moral 
and intellectual parts of its spiritual life as inde- 
pendent of each other, we know to-day they can 
hasten progress only if combined : " That we want 
to do our duty is the moral part ; that we know 
how to do it is the intellectual part. The closer the 
two are connected with each other, the greater will 
be the harmony with which they act, and the more 
minutely the means correspond with the object in 
view, the more completely our life's destiny will 
be reached, and the more securely the conditions 
for further progress of mankind are secured." 
Thus speaks Buckle in his principal chapters on 
this point. 

Though logical thinking and a wide intellectual 
horizon are essential factors of genuine moral ac- 
tion, they by no means alone lead us to morality. 
If they did, intellectual culture would not, since 
Kousseau, have been so often coupled with the dir- 



RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTING A REQUISITE. 85 

est immorality. There must be added to intel- 
lectual culture a habit of applying it in the do- 
minion of morality — that is, the intellectual factor 
must be brought to the other chief factor : moral 
will-power. And that leads us to the second ques- 
tion : How far and in what way can the will-power 
be influenced in the child ? 

The answer lies in the foregoing. Such an in- 
fluence can be exercised directly through religious 
instruction, but it can, indirectly, take place also 
in a roundabout way through the intellect ; the 
proper comprehension must be awakened. In nei- 
ther case must instruction be abstract. The child 
dislikes preaching. But it is open always to the 
effect of imagination and enthusiasm. Hence the 
great effect of examples, symbols, and j)oetry. 
Moral will-power is best kindled by examples of 
high noble men in history, both Biblical and pro- 
fane, and in poetry. 

Our third question is : What has school to do 
with it ? Many think it has nothing to do with it. 
With them school is a knowledge-factory, and is to 
offer even that which prepares for the children's 
future callings ; hence, with them school is de- 
signed to be professional. According to the great^^ 
est educators, however, it has an entirely different 
duty to perform, and that duty becomes all the 



86 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

more imperative since family influence is weaken- 
ing in an alarming degree. School can systemat- 
ically influence the development of will-power and 
aid the liberation of the thinking power ; it is done 
best by inducing the pupils to observe human life 
and action. Human life is to be the object of our 
knowledge, the intellect is to be trained, true judg- 
ment to be gained by studying life ; in the course 
of human life the effect of moral laws is shown. 

Some time ago, I advocated the teaching of a 
special branch of study, " Knowledge of life " ; if 
not the name, the substance should be had in school. 
The frame for it is found in dilferent branches of 
study commonly taught which might inclose and 
organically connect elementary, ethical, economical, 
social and technical notions and ideas. In instruc- 
tion in religion we may be sure of moral compre- 
hension as well as moral effect, if we do not teach 
dogmatically, but show directly the influence of di- 
vine life upon human life ; that is to say, place the 
facts of conscience, of charity, of joy in the good, 
etc., in the center of school life, and show their ef- 
fect in the life of the child, in the life of the world 
which surrounds it ; teach the child to feel the eye 
of God in every moment of its life. In history we 
can practice both the intellect and the moral will- 
power, by making the pupils familiar with the 



CENTERS OF THE COURSE OF STUDY. 87 

events and conditions of civilization in past and 
present, and making them see or comprehend the 
things as in a bird's-eye view in which each appears 
in its true relation to others ; by awakening a clear 
insight into the facts that everywhere in the end 
the great moral ideas are victorious. In instruc- 
tion in German^ finally, the best opportunity is 
offered to discuss all that without restraint, con- 
necting it with the ideals of our great poets. 

Thus the school wall teach how to grasp and 
understand life, by rising upon a higher level from 
which the ethical can be viewed without obstruc- 
tion. Hence it would seem to me essential to make 
instruction in religion, history, and the mother 
tongue, the centers of the course of study and the 
daily practice.^' That which is human and moral 
is thus placed into the center of the various ideas 
awakened by daily instruction ; both mind and heart 
are formed in contact with it ; intellectual power 
and moral character are both fed by it, and thus 
again, as so often, idealism "hits the center." For 
if we develop the power to think, and the moral 

* This theory seems to me equally well adapted for boys' 
schools ; I acknowledge, that it may not be realized there soon, 
these schools being, as it were, shaped by outer circumstances ; 
but in our girls' schools we do not have to fear anything that 
might hinder lis in the application of purely pedagogical prin- 
ciples. ■ ' ■ 



88 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

character, we train much better for actual life than 
if we fill the head with sterile, positive knowledge. 
At this latter procedure Mace's fairy-tale is really 
aimed. Positive knowledge comes by itself, since 
we deal with positive material alone; thinking is 
learned from facts alone. These, however, will be 
retained better, and if lost regained more easily^ if 
they are comprehended in connection with one an- 
other, if worked by independent mental activity 
into a homogeneous whole ; indeed^ vastly better 
are they retained than when they are offered in 
fragments, or detached bits, and imposed upon a 
mind that does not desire them. 

But here is the difficulty. It is infinitely more 
difficult to find teachers who are able to thus con- 
duct the ethical branches, than to find them for 
mere or purely intellectual branches, such as natural 
history and science^ mathematics and foreign lan- 
guages. To teach these latter branches a good head 
is necessary, while for the former a thoroughly cult- 
ured and harmoniously developed person is needed. 
Many teachers to whom are intrusted the ethical 
branches do not know what to do with them. In 
many schools, girls' as well as boys' schools, dog- 
matic religion is taught, and philological nonsense 
during the lessons in language ; history here consists 
of cramming facts and cut and dried opinions into 



OBJECTIONS MET. 89 

tlie memory. Indeed, such teaching is worse than 
none at all, for both mind and heart suffer under it, 
the moral sense is left dormant and the intellect is 
blunted ; the mind is thus accustomed to play with 
formulas which later on are positive obstacles for in- 
dependent judgment. "Whatever else may be its 
faults, a real intellectual training would escape such 
jugglery. 

Another more important reason is advanced in 
opposition to the emphasis given the ethical and in 
favor of purely intellectual branches. The ethical 
branches exercise a most powerful influence upon 
the development of character. A strong individual- 
ity — and only such a one influences pupils — will 
always impress its own views and opinions in relig- 
ion, history, and poetry, despite all its efforts at ob- 
jectivity ; hence will influence children even more 
strongly and more lastingly than home or parents. 
How many fathers and mothers must feel that the 
spiritual life of their children is withdrawn from 
their influence, especially during the later years of 
the school course ! Wherever the strength of a sys- 
tem is there also is its weakness. This suggesting 
of thoughts and awakening of impulses in school, 
it is very obvious, may be a blessing to the entire 
nation ; it may also be a curse. The recognition of 
this fact has given rise to the movement of abolish- 



90 HIGHER EDUCATION OP WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

ing instruction in religion in the schools, and this 
only enables us to understand it. 

But this example also points out the real cause 
of a possible danger. It can only arise when en- 
deavors are made to lead ethical instruction in 
school toward a certain direction by decrees and 
regulations, combined with a system of promo- 
tions and official slights tending to secure that 
direction. The history of public education has 
recorded such periods ; one of them is still vividly 
remembered. If in this way free spirit is fettered, 
ethical instruction is made to serve special pur- 
poses; if it is obliged to accomodate itself to the 
vacillations and ever-changing views of the ruling 
powers, if sentiments are to be made uniform and 
to be licensed, then, indeed, a system which pays 
exclusive attention to the intellectual branches 
would be preferable. But the other system is dan- 
gerous only in the case mentioned. If a certain 
liberty is granted to individuality, there will never 
be any real danger. Individualities always stimu- 
late ; they alone can draw heart to heart, because 
they have heart themselves. The one-sidedness of 
one individuality is offset by that of another. The 
pupil feels all through his school-life that he has 
contact with human beings, men with a spiritual 
life peculiarly their -own, men of holy convictions, 



TENDENCY TOWARD INDEPENDENCE. 91 

not merely ligure-lieads and puppets. A school 
system can rise only with outspoken individuality ; 
it can remain on its height only when respecting 
individuality. It is a gratifying sign of the increas- 
ing consideration which the necessity of independ- 
ence and individual importance finds in modern 
times when we see that even in military circles the 
spirit of the leaders is liberated by the abolishment 
of rigid forms, and thus made capable of self -active 
decision, that even for the private soldier close con- 
nection with others in columns is not advised any 
longer. Everywhere we see the tendency toward 
independent self-action. How much more is that 
necessity desirable in a school system where the 
justifiable individuality of independent minds 
should have free play, in order to secure the great- 
est possible effect. It should, at last, be comper- 
hended that " a scattered line " in the great battle 
culture is fighting is preferable to " a closed line " ; 
uniformity in scientific accomplishments is thereby 
as little endangered as the uniform technical train- 
ing of the soldiers. 

It seems to me very desirable to give into the 
hands of the pupil a weapon which enables him in 
ever-increasing individuality to meet his teacher; 
his mind must be liberated, so that he may acquire 
a control, as it were, a judgment, of what the 



92 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

teacher sajs ; jurare in verha magistri (swearing 
by the word of the teacher) must be prevented. 
That is done best by thorough, formative training 
by means of the intellectual branches of study. 
But to place them in the center of instruction is 
not advisable, because they engender a certain cold- 
ness of heart and foster an egotism which is inca- 
pable of genuine enthusiasm. True and thorough 
culture is always caused through contemplation of 
humanity and life ; if in combination with that 
the natural sciences receive due attention (since 
spiritual life can only be comprehended in con- 
nection with physical life, and man only in con- 
nection with nature) it would give, in my opinion, 
genuine humanities. That such a system may do 
injury does not lessen the truth of the principles 
upon which it rests, for every system may be 
abused. JS^or is the fact that it will have good 
results only in the hands of good teachers of great 
weight ; for though there are few Gertrudes, yet 
Pestalozzi's thoughts are unassailable. 

This humane culture, offered to boys chiefly 
by men, to girls chiefly by women, would be my 
ideal of school education. Because the ethical 
branches have great power over the emotions and 
an absolute influence upon the development of 
character, I claim them for female teachers in girls' 



J]THICAL CULTURE IMPONDERABLE. 93 

schools. That but few female teachers as jet un- 
derstand the importance of these branches may be 
seen from the naive astonishment expressed among 
them at my choice. 

If we compare the German and the English 
girls' schools, it is seen that ice lay more stress 
upon the ethical, the Englishmen more upon in- 
tellectual education. Both may have gone a little 
into excess, but, take all in all, I prefer our side. 
To prove the value of the German system in its 
results is perhaps impossible, from the fact that it 
has not had a proper chance to show its results. 
And, in fact, it seems to me doubtful whether the 
proof can ever be furnished. Who will trace the 
subtle threads that unite to cause a moral result? 
Human beings can not be furnished to order after 
models. Individuality and environments will de- 
cide whether the seeds we sow will take root. 
Regardless of that we must work on, the result, 
an average result, will not be wanting, though it 
be not always tangible. Ethical culture belongs to 
the imponderable fluids. 

Such an instruction as our " German " * can be 
only rarely found in English high schools (where, of 
course, it would be called " English "), at least not 

* Of course, the authoress means instruction in language and 
literature. 



94 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

SO extended and with sucli clear comprehension of 
what is aimed at. The fact that our hterature is 
better suited for the purpose tlian the EngHsli may 
serve as an excuse. There is no Hterature in the 
world so suitable for ethical effect, and so pure and 
noble that its masterpieces may without hesitation 
be placed in the hands of children, as the German. 
It would be a difficult task to select or compile 
from English literature (not to mention the French) 
a canon of poetical works that offered suitable mat- 
ter for instruction. English literature contains little 
or nothing that could be compared in variety, pu- 
rity, and depth of effect upon a mind and heart just 
growing into self-consciousness with Schiller's and 
Uhland's poems, or anything that could in the least 
be compared in adaptability with Hermann und 
Dorothea, Iphigenie, Tasso, Jungfrau von Orleans, 
Nathan der Weise, etc. 

Despite this great advantage^ the matter should 
be sifted properly. True, w^e have instruction in 
religion (though in many schools only as a special 
study), but side by side with this study directly ap- 
pealing to the heart should go another instruction, 
the object of which is to aim at the same truths in 
a roundabout way through the intellect. This is 
not found in English schools — neither in girls' nor in 
boys' schools — but the want is actually felt, and means 



INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL LIFE. 95 

are sought to supply it. A pamphlet by E. A. Man- 
ning on Moral Teaching in Schools points to that 
want and proposes an elementary course in ethics as 
a remedy ; if that remedy were applied, we should 
still have an advantage in our instruction in " Ger- 
man " (provided it be well given) because it offers, 
unnoticed and as a matter of course, linked with ex- 
alted and noble personages, what such a course in 
ethics could only offer systematically and, as it were, 
intentionally. Perhaps by drawing more upon prose 
literature than is necessary with us a literary center 
may be found around which ethical instruction could 
be grouped. 

The want of the English school system spoken 
of is met with, to a great extent, by some features 
of domestic and social life in England which are 
powerful enough to counteract the disadvantages 
arising from too great leniency during infancy. 
First, an excellent literature for children ; second, 
systematic practice in charity from earliest childhood 
up. To this may be added an innate love of truth 
and a decisive energy of will-power. 

I will touch upon these points but briefly. If 
our classic literature is incomparably better for ethi- 
cal application in youth than the English it must be 
admitted that the English literature of fiction is su- 
perior for children and especially for young ladies. 



96 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

It is represented by Miss Yoiige, Maria Edgeworth, 
Louisa Charleswortli, Florence Montgomery, Miss 
Sewell, and many others ; onr Clara Cron, Clemen- 
tine Helm, and whatever their names may be, are 
beaten from the field by the English. We have 
really only one who might equal the English author- 
esses, Ottilie Wildermuth, with her, at times, a little 
too sober view of life. Generally speaking, our lit- 
erature is suffering from the fact that it introduces 
young girls into an unreal w^orld ; it describes to 
them the delights of the ball-room, of socials, teas 
and calls, etc., in bright but borrowed colors, and 
does everything to awaken emotions which had bet- 
ter lie dormant a few years longer. The English 
authoresses put before their young readers psychical 
problems suitable for their age and induce them to 
think about them ; they picture the world as it really 
appears, but from the standpoint of a person who is 
working at his own development in all seriousness. 
These books (and English children read a great deal) 
partly take the place of our instruction in " Ger- 
man ; " they induce to contemplation of self and 
give impetus to moral will-power through the chan- 
nel of emotion. 

English children generally have more chances 
for practical application of charity than ours. They 
learn human misery and need from observation; 



CHANCES FOR PRACTISING CHARITY. 97 

they are early trained to place their strength into 
the service of charity. Active assistance of the 
poor and the sick belongs to the duties of which 
every English woman is conscious, and to the fulfill- 
ment of which she trains her daughters. As a par- 
ticularly pleasing feature of some London high 
schools may be mentioned that in them "young 
ladies' associations " have been formed, the avowed 
object of which is to alleviate human misery ; no- 
where is misery shown so bare and undisguised as 
in London. 

Thus home and practical life adjusts what is 
v/rong in school. But that is no reason why tlie 
schools themselves should not do what is necessary. 
The great interest shown among the leading Eng- 
lish women makes it reasonable to suppose that it 
will be done ere long. 



CPIAPTEE YI. 

INTELLECTUAL EDUCATION IN ENGLAND AND GERMANY. 

While I am sure that the Enghsh schools might 
borrow from Germany in regard to ethical educa- 
tion, the German schools might be induced to bor- 
row from England in the matter of intellectual edu- 
cation That the German girls' schools are not do- 
ing in this direction what may justly be expected 
has come to my knowledge, not through my own ex- 
perience, but through statements made officially by 
men who have had much experience in examining 
young ladies. The consensus of their opinion is: 
Good solid knowledge in literature, history, and 
modern languages found frequently ; but the efforts 
in composition less than mediocre, and the capacity 
for independent logical thinking below par. He 
who has had something to do with young ladies will 
know how difficult it is to make them think ; yet we 
find that they did think when in the primary and 
grammar grades — yes, think well and much ; but 
when they reach the upper grades a certain intellect- 



THE ANCIENT LANGUAGES. 99 

uai lameness becomes noticeable. That may be ow- 
ing to tlie fact that the intellect (I don't mean the 
memory) is not sufficiently exerted. The old 
branches are gone over again ; they do not call for 
much exertion, hence it would seem advisable to 
bring them into contact with an entirely new mat- 
ter of thought during the years in which they are 
apt to become languid, so as to spur them to ener- 
getic action. What branch should that be? The 
English high schools offer the ancient languages 
and higher mathematics. 

The ancient languages are taught in English 
girls' schools, as is well known, not on account of 
their ethical but simply on account of their intel- 
lectual importance. It is not expected that a 
pupil who stumbles through the ancient classics in 
the original will be filled with antique ideas and 
emotions, but the value of the study is found, or 
sought at least, in the mental gymnastics it offers. 
It would not be in place here to enter into the dis- 
cussion that is now going on in Germany and in 
England with reference to the formative value of 
the ancient languages. I refer the reader to a book 
of recent origin — one of the best that has appeared 
on that subject, namely, Clemens IS^ohl's Paedago- 
gik, respecting his arguments for the '' middle 
school without Latin." I beg leave to say that I 



100 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

agree with every word lie says. Public opinion, 
too, is more and more emphatic against the lofty 
airs which the classical high school (gymnasium) 
resj)ecting the ancient languages assumes. It is 
no longer questioned that the mental gymnastics, 
thought possible only through them, are sought 
and found of late in otlier ways, and would gen- 
erally be so acquired if it were not for the fact 
that the Government's favors are bestowed upon 
the graduates of classical schools. Certainly the 
formative value of the study of the classical lan- 
guages is great ; but modern life demands too 
much to sjDcnd the best years in training our 
mental faculties with means wdiicli, in themselves, 
have nothing to do with the actualities of life, and, 
besides, cause an overburdening which plays havoc 
with youth. My personal view of this is that a 
lessening of the great burdens of school, which 
seems so urgently necessary, can only be effected 
by limiting the extent of language instruction. It 
seems to me more than probable that the time is 
not very distant in w^hich instruction in ancient 
languages will be greatly limited and the elements 
of modern languages acquired more rapidly than 
is done now (probably by means of improved 
methods, such as the " natural method," and by 
speaking these languages with teachers who have 



FORMATIVE CULTURE OF LANGUAGE STUDY. 10 i 

spent some time in foreign countries), in order to 
use tliese languages for the purpose of learning 
the life of other nations, their aspirations, views 
of life, and results of thought. Then the true 
value of linguistic culture, namely, abihty to view 
a broader current of thought than is found in one's 
own nation, may be acquired; and then, too, the 
study of foreign tongues will aid in ethical cult- 
ure, but not until then. A method which will 
make this possible wath children is only appli- 
cable to living languages, because in them alone 
conversation is possible, and comprehension of 
the live present in contradistinction to the dead 
past. 

The formative culture of language study, of 
which so much is said, will certainly be facilitated 
if many grammatical gymnastics that are now 
practiced before the language is known are lim- 
ited to essentials. Grammar should follow and 
not accompany the acquisition of any language — 
at least, it should not begin until material enough 
is gathered from which to derive rules. (" Pupils 
should learn to think in a language before they are 
called upon to think ahoid it."— Panitz.) In girls' 
schools, where, with regard to the choice of lan- 
guages, more freedom is granted than in boys' 
schools, an early attention to this question is re- 



102 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

quested. Here reading and tlie live spoken word 
should take precedence of the grammar. 

Hence it is obvious that I am opposed to the 
ancient languages in girls' schools. Their intro- 
duction into girls' schools in England is owing to 
the influence of men (the examining boards), partly 
also owing to time -honored custom. Not only 
Lady Jane Grey read Plato ; the study of the 
ancients has never been neglected by the female 
sex in England. Though it may not have been 
pursued in boarding schools, it certainly has been 
privately. And then very obvious causes spoke too 
plainly to admit of disregard — I mean that, for ad- 
mission into the colleges, a thorough preparation 
in the ancient classics was conditio sine qua non."^ 
Such reasons might, Vv^itli almost equal force, be 

* The views which I have here advanced are shared by many 
of the leaders of the English movement for the improvement of 
higher learning for women. They, however, acquiesced under 
the heavy pressure of circumstances. In England the opposi- 
tion to the supremacy of the ancient languages in school is fully 
as strong as it is in Germany ; and, if I am not very much mis- 
taken, the years, if not the days, are counted after which those 
dead languages will not be conditio sine qua 7ion of higher 
studies. When that takes place, the ancient languages in Eng- 
lish high-schools will have to take a back seat, though they may 
not entirely be eliminated ; and that will also be the case in 
women's colleges. That is the outspoken desire of such women 
as Miss Clough and Mrs. Sidgwick, I know. They have thus 
far only yielded to the, alas ! strong argument : " We must learn 
as the men learn, or they will not recognize us." 



THE ANCIENT LANGUAGES. 103 

advanced in Germany as long as tlie supremacy of 
tlie ancient languages continues. Many a mother 
would be delighted to be able to help her sons in 
their school work, and a little knowledge of Latin 
seems almost indispensable, considering the fact 
that Latin has so largely saturated scientific works. 
Hence, if the upper grade of our girls' schools (the 
so-called " selecta " class) would offer Latin besides 
other studies, no one would be apt to object. It is 
a wonder that it has not been done before, instead 
of the much less useful Italian taught in that class 
in some schools. 

A thorough knowledge of the classic languages, 
I am well aware, is obligatory for the learned pro- 
fessions ; but for those young ladies who would 
enter a foreign university — German universities 
admit no women — to prepare themselves for the 
learned professions, no opportunity offers itself for 
acquiring the ancient languages save private in- 
struction. There, it seems to me, a remedy must 
be applied. But just as opposed as I am to change 
our girls' schools to classical schools, just as heartily 
am I in favor of establishing at least a certain 
number of classical schools for girls, so as to give 
those who intend to enter the university an oppor- 
tunity to fit themselves for it. It would be fully 
early enough if they entered such a classical school 



104: HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

wlien fourteen years old. They would tlieu be old 
enough to judge of their own capabilities, old 
enough to know what they need for their future 
calling. Many would enter such a school even 
later, with mature mental powers, and would ac- 
quire the prescribed languages faster and with 
much less loss of time than is done in the pro- 
verbial classical schools of to-day. Thus, as special 
schools, these girls' "gymnasiums" or "real-schu- 
len " would seem justified, and their establishment 
should be assisted by women all the more, since, 
according to the experiments made thus far, there 
is no other way open than self-help — at least, the 
state is not likely to lend a helping hand in the 
near future. 

But back to the girls' schools, our text. 

Although I should not recommend the intro- 
duction of the classical languages into the girls' 
schools (except, as stated, into special classical 
schools), because a very small percentage of the 
number of students would be benefited by them, 
I should with much emphasis urge the introduction 
of the natural sciences and higher mathematics. 
Natural sciences are taught in them now, it is 
true; but I should like to see them taught less 
like play and more in a maimer which appeals to 
original thought. They would then be inore like 



MATHEMATICS. 105 

culture-studies. I have spoken of tlie role they 
must play as necessary complements to the ethical 
branches, namely, as a completion to the very de- 
sirable knowledge of life ; I should now add, they 
are of enormous value as formative studies. The 
student learns in them correct observation of ac- 
tuality, learns that she can approach truth only 
"through quiet and slow progress, leaning upon 
well-understood facts." More desirable than these 
studies even seems to me mathematics; I do not 
only regard it higher than language study as a 
formative study — the unrelenting logic with which 
a hasty conclusion is prevented is an irreplaceable 
means of education — but it offers exactly what we 
need to meet the want spoken of before — a new, 
hence interesting and elevating subject. I own will- 
ingly that it was only through experience that I 
renounced the prejudice I possessed against mathe- 
matics, thinking it an inadmissible study in girls' 
schools. Mathematics is taught with great zeal in 
English high schools, and the young ladies seem to 
express a preference for it by attempting the very 
difficult mathematical tripos in the university which 
presupposes very accurate and minute knowledge. 
The results of the high schools in mathematics, as 
stated by Schoell (Schmidt's Encyclopaedia, Yol. iii, 
p. 1132) are thorough and good, and the examina- 



106 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

tion rolls of the universities prove tliat even in 
higher mathematics very satisfactory results are 
accomplished. I believe it would be promoting 
the education of our girls, their practice in think- 
ing and judging, if mathematics should receive a 
few more hours per week than are now given to it. 
These hours may be taken from other branches of 
less weight. If the languages were bled a little 
it might, perhaps, lead to better results, provided, 
of course, the ethical branches did not suffer by 
favoring the intellectual ones. I find that in this I 
am in accord with Clemens JSTolil, who asserts that 
the doctrine that girls should be kept away from 
arithmetic and mathematics " is one of tlie numer- 
ous pedagogical dogmas which were invented by 
theorizers and thoughtlessly repeated by otherwise 
practical men — a dogma which one rationally con- 
ducted lesson in arithmetic or mathematics in any 
girls' school w^ould completely upset." He desires 
these branches, in order to counteract the "senti- 
mental, exuberant, fanciful twaddle " found there, 
tolerated and flourishing under the guise of " nour- 
ishment for the heart." 

The sum total of my opinion concerning the 
woman question and female education in England is 
this : There are three causes that have led to a 
happy solution of the woman question : (1) The uu- 



EXCLUSIVE INTELLECTUAL CULTURE. 107 

disturbed, resolute, close union of English women 
without parties and factions ; (2) the generous as- 
sistance of noble men ; (3) the fact that the women 
not only demanded equal rights with men, but de- 
manded the same accomplishments for themselves. 
That is what may serve us in Germany as an exam- 
ple. That the English women had at their dispo- 
sal great funds, I consider of minor importance ; 
these extensive means are simply in proportion to 
the entire English institutions; and so will our 
means be in proportion to our institutions and na- 
tional wealth. Our men have a highly developed 
system of higher education, and the women could 
have the same if they wanted it ; that is to say, if 
the same interest were awakened which I found 
in England. 

And as to their advanced girls' schools, the 
English have this advantage — they concede to 
woman a wholesome influence in their manage- 
ment. The special emphasis which is bestowed 
in England upon exclusive intellectual, at the ex- 
pense of ethical, culture does not meet my ap- 
proval. But it must be admitted tliat England 
shares that preference with all other foreign na- 
tions. And yet I would not introduce the ancient 
languages, but would introduce mathematics as an 
intellectual branch in our girls' schools, and at the 



108 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

same time recommend tlie establishment of special 
classical schools for girls to accomodate the ever- 
growing nnmber of young women wdio wish to 
prepare themselves for university studies. 

It is admitted, as a matter of self-evidence, that 
the English system of female education is open to 
criticism and offers room for improvement ; this is 
willingly admitted by English women. Perfection 
can not be reached in a single bound. But it is 
delightful to know that w^omen were among the 
first who denounced the w^ell-known mechanical 
drill in English schools. Boys' high schools, both 
public and private, are suffering under this senseless 
procedure, and the public lower schools seem to be 
doomed under the influence of machine regulations. 
It is confidently expected that the women will con- 
tinue in the work of reform, and that they will in 
time to come do away with all the remnants of the 
old system. The absolute liberty of development 
enjoyed by the English system of higher female 
education makes easy a correction of errors and 
antiquated institutions when a resolute will employs 
its energy to that end. And the energetic initia- 
tive and great mental mobility shown by English 
women in starting the enormous school reforms will 
secure for their work a prospering future, despite 
all mistakes that may have been made in the begin- 



ENERGETIC INITIATIVE. 109 

ning. For Germans the opinion of our celebrated 
countryman, Prof. Max Miiller, of Oxford, may be 
of weight. To his initiative may be traced the es- 
tablishment of a high school in Oxford. lie pays 
a high tribute to the work done in it by women. 



CHAPTER YII. 

IN OTHER COUNTRIES OF EUROPE. 

Whenever the possibility of admitting women 
to the German universities is discussed and the ex- 
ample of England is pointed out, it is replied that 
the circumstances are different and that a parallel 
can not be drawn. This answer seems very plaus- 
ible, yet it is directed at a supposition which no one 
has made. ]N^o one is so foolish as to propose that 
the English institutions be transferred to Germany 
and servilely copied there. That I personally 
am not of that opinion is, I believe, clearly stated 
in the preceding pages, excepting a few things 
Avhicli are worthy of imitation. But what should 
be transplanted is the jyvinciple that to women 
should be opened the same studies, to them should 
be offered the same relief and the same encourage- 
ment that men enjoy. If this principle is once 
accepted, things will develop in Germany in a 
German manner, as they developed in England in 
an English manner. 



IN FRANCE. Ill 

Most European countries (not to speak of 
America) have either carried out this principle — at 
least with regard to university studies — or are be- 
ginning to do so. Let us see what is being done 
in other countries. 

France. — This country began early to provide 
for the women in a most generous Avay. From 
1866 till 1882 one hundred and nine academic de- 
grees have been conferred upon women. Neither 
did the medical faculty raise any difficulties. The 
prejudice that the female intellect was not able to 
cope with the study of medicine was quickly over- 
come. With great candor, Ernest Legouve, for- 
merly an opponent of the cause, admits that he has 
been in error if he thought w^omen incapable of 
pursuing scientific studies. In France there were 
no preparatory schools for the university. Only 
after the downfall of the second empire, after the 
humiliating experiences in 18 70-' 71, steps were 
taken favorable to women ; the Government became 
convinced of the fact that an elevation of the whole 
people is only possible by means of an elevation of 
its women. The motion of Camille See to found 
and maintain Ij-ceums for women was adopted 
without delay. " Our law is a moral as well as 
a social and political law," thus he pleaded for it, 
in 1880, before the Chamber of Deputies; "it 



112 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

concerns tlie future and security of France, for 
upon the women depends tlie greatness or decay 
of the nations." 

PubUc opinion in France was favorable to See's 
law. The city of Rouen was the first that opened 
a lyceum for girls. It cost a million francs to 
build. One half of the expense was defrayed by 
the state, the other half by the community On 
the day on Avhich the school was opened two hun- 
dred and two pupils were enrolled. In 1882 the 
state voted for an additional ten million francs for 
the establishment of such schools, and their num- 
ber has since greatly increased.* 

England. — The foregoing pages report fully 
what has been done in England. Ever since 1867 
one privilege after another has been yielded, one 
college after another has been opened, and the 
number of women pursuing university studies has 
increased from five to as many hundreds. 

* At present, January, 1890, France has fifty-one girls' 
lyceum s (that is, high schools, to use an American term). Our 
sources of information differ as to the date and plan of the first 
girls' lyceum opened in France ; some say the city of Mont- 
pellier was the first, others Rouen — the fact is immaterial, 
though. The last one opened is in Paris ; it has cost two mill- 
ion francs, has six male and sixteen female teachers ; the pupils 
are between seven and seventeen years of age. Besides the 
high-school branches, sewing and domestic economy are taught. 
The pupils who go through a post-graduate course of one year 
receive a teacher's license. — Translator. 



IN OTHER COUNTRIES. I13 

Switzerland. — As is well known, Switzerland 
opened its universities to women verj early. Zu- 
rich was the lirst, in 1868 ; then followed Geneva, 
Bern, and Neufchatel. The women here, like the 
women in England and France, have to do the same 
duties, but they enjoy also the same rights and 
privileges that the men have in regard to higher 
education. 

Sweden. — Then followed Sweden, throwing 
open the doors of its universities to women. In 
1870 they were admitted, and since 1873 they can 
acquire the same degrees in the arts and in medi- 
cine as are conferred upon men. The exemplary 
conduct of the young men toward the women in 
the universities of Sweden is justly commented 
upon. 

Denmarh followed in 1875. It opened its only 
university, that in Copenhagen. "Women there 
may acquire all the degrees open to men save that 
of D. D., for the theological faculty is closed to 
them. 

Italy. — In Italy the better - educated class has 

been favorable to the question of higher education 

of women. The Minister of Public Instruction, 

Bonghi, opened the university to women shortly: 

before he was obliged to resign (1876). 

Bussia. — In 1867 the women petitioned the Gov- 
8 



114 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

ernment for admission to the universities, but Min- 
ister Tolstoi refused to grant it. Then the profess- 
ors of the University of St. Petersburg made use of 
their right to give pubUc lectures in such a way 
that they arranged complete courses, so that women 
were enabled to pursue university studies and pre- 
pare for examinations for ten years before they 
were officially admitted to the university. The 
same minister who had in 1867 refused to grant 
admission, at last, in 1878, agreed to having 
courses arranged for women in the University of 
St. Petersburg. They were attended quite numer- 
ously. The universities in Moscow, Kiev, Kasan, 
and others followed. Finland^ as is well known, 
is ahead of other nations in this, as in many other 
educational movements. 

Holland. — In 1880 the first female student was 
.enrolled in the University of Amsterdam. In one 
respect Holland is ahead of all other countries, in- 
asmuch as women there have never been debarred 
from admission to the university. The new law, 
passed in 1876, needed not have given women the 
right which, in fact, had never been denied them. 
They now certainly have the same right to ma- 
triculation and degrees that is offered to men, pro- 
vided they pass the required examinations. The 
first enrollment of a woman in Amsterdam took 



IN OTHER COUNTRIES. 115 

place in 1880, but woinen had been studying in 
Groningen before that date. Now women are 
studying in all the four Dutch universities — Ley- 
den, Utrecht, Groningen, and Amsterdam — though, 
as yet, their number is small. 

Belgimn. — In this country the first woman 
was admitted to a university course in 1880 (in 
Brussels). Since 1883 the admission of women 
has become general, and they are studying 
with good success in Brussels, Liittich, and 
Ghent. 

Norway. — Here the first woman. Miss Cecile 
Thoresen, asked to be admitted to the University 
of Christiania in 1880. According to the status 
and the charter of the institution she had to be 
refused admittance ; but no sooner had this become 
known to the world than a member of Parlia- 
ment proposed a bill to admit women to the 
examen artiwn and the examen jphilosophicwn. 
The parliamentary Committee on Education re- 
ported the bill unanimously to the house, and in 
the two houses the bill was passed with a single 
dissenting vote. It became a law on July 15, 
1882. Wlien Miss Thoresen w^as enrolled, the 
students, w^ho had always been favorable to the 
movement, sent her an address of congratulation 
and welcome. 



116 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

About the state of affairs in S^ain and Portu- 
gal I received, from trust worthy sources, the fol- 
lowing information : There is no law in either of 
these countries which refuses women admission to 
the universities or any other pubhc seats of learn- 
ing, either as teachers or as pupils. The statutes 
and charters say nothing on that point. Hence, 
when women ask to be admitted no one refuses. 
However, the general idea is — and a justified one 
it appears — that the southern women have not the 
desire nor the intellectual and physical powers for 
scientific activity. Still, exceptions are appreciated 
without hesitation, and they are treated ivith true 
liberality and perfect courtesy. The names of such 
ladies are often quoted with admiration, but their 
example finds little imitation. The actual partici- 
pation in academic studies is very small. A few 
w^omen study at Madrid, Yalladolid, and Barcelona, 
chiefly medicine. The Portuguese university at 
Coimbra has never been asked to admit women, but 
in the medical school at Oporto three young ladies 
are enrolled. They have been studying w^ith suc- 
cess for some years, and have regularly attended the 
"anatomy" classes (dissecting-rooms and clinics). 
Though university study is still considered an ex- 
ception for women, the examinations arranged for 
elementary and high schools, to w^hich, without ex- 



IN GERMAN AUSTRIA. H^ 

ception, every boy and girl is admitted regardless 
of where and in what manner he or she acquired 
the knowledge asked for, are readily participated 
in by both sexes. These examinations have been 
held during the last six years. Hundreds of young 
ladies submit to them. The question of establish- 
ing special girls' lyceums is being agitated ; a vio- 
lent controversy has been going on concerning this, 
and the desire of many Portuguese is "that their 
ladies may remain in future as charmingly ami- 
able and foolish children as they have been since 
Adam's time." 

Of great nations in Europe there remain Ger- 
■many, Austria-Hungary, and Tiirltey. 

German Atcstria has at least made a beginning. 
A decree of the Minister of Education (in 1878) 
admits women to certain regular lecture courses of 
the university. Each case, however, is to be exam- 
ined separately, and the decision as to whether an 
admission is to be granted is left to the college of 
professors, and particularly to that of the professor 
whose lectures are applied for. Enrollment, hence 
participation in working for a degree, is prohibited.^ 
It is obvious that this decree may mean much or 
little ; it all depends upon the professors, whether 
they are favorable to the admission of women or 
not. In Vienna the professors have shown great 



118 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

willingness. The women studying there praise the 
consideration shown them by the professors and 
the excellent reserved conduct of the students. 
Here, then, is a case where the women have to ful- 
fill all the duties imposed upon the men but do not 
enjoy their prerogatives. That they, for instance, 
have passed their examination for graduation is not 
given in documentary evidence ; only privately the 
professors give a testimonial to that effect. JS^either 
is their college register kept, and a private state- 
ment of their regular attendance is all they have 
liitherto been able to obtain. Nevertheless, their 
admission, limited as it is, is considered of value, 
since their attendance in Vienna is taken as ''^ jpri- 
ma facie evidence " in other universities, such as 
Zurich. It is devoutly to be hoped that the Aus- 
trian Government w^ill change this state of affairs 
and legalize it. 

In Hungary three women liave made an attempt 
to obtain admission to the universities of Buda-Pesth 
and Klausenburg. The university authorities were 
inclined to admit them, representing the principle : 
" Wlioever proves that he possesses the required 
preparation is admitted to matriculation and the 
examinations of the university ; sex is not consid- 
ered." But the Minister of Culture, Trefort, re- 
fused his assent. Since this official died during the 



IN HUNGARY. 119 

year 1889, it is reasonable to suppose that Hungary 
will not long lag behind in the great onward march 
of civilization, and then the German women will be 
the only ones in Europe — we need not take the 
women on the Balkan peninsula into consideration 
— who are excluded from university study. 



CHAPTER YIII. 

WHY WOMEN SHOULD BE ADMITTED TO UNIVERSITIES. 

Attempts have also been made by women in 
Germany during the last two decades to obtain ad- 
mission to the universities, though they were but 
rare cases. A few professors have looked upon 
such endeavors with favor, but they did not care to 
make themselves the leaders of the cause. Here 
and there admission has been granted to a few 
courses of lectures — especially to foreign ladies — 
but of late this has been surrounded by many limi- 
tations. The women are excluded on principle 
from passing the examination for graduation ; not 
even a private examination is allowed them. The 
German women have to go to foreign countries if 
they will not forego a higher education. 

It can not be asserted, and it certainly is not, 
that the two great nations of the German tongue 
have taken a very advanced position in this ques- 
tion, but German Austi-ia stands ahead of Germany, 
to be sure. 



DISCONTENT OF THE MODERN GIRL. 121 

To answer the question, why women insist at 
present npon admission to the university, is to give 
all the reasons for the great woman movement. 
In our time material and intellectual wants urge 
woman as never before. Material wants — the 
liberation of hand labor by machine labor, and the 
increasing tendency of men to remain unmarried, 
leaves a great number of women without visible 
means of support. The same circumstances create 
an intellectual want in circles where pecuniary aid 
is not needed, and this want is equally hard to bear. 
No one has described this more vividly than Miss 
E. Da vies. 

"Many fathers are no doubt aware that their 
daughters have very little to do. But that seems to 
them anything but a hardship. They wish they 
had a little less to do themselves, and can imagine 
all sorts of interesting pursuits to which they would 
betake themselves if they only had a little more 
leisure. Ladies, it may be said, have their choice, 
and they must evidently prefer idleness, or they 
would find something to do. If this means that 
half-educated young women do not choose steady 
work when they have no inducement whatever to 
overcome natural indolence, it is no doubt true. 
Women are no stronger minded than men, and a 
commonplace young woman can no more work 



122 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

steadily witliout motive or discipline than a com- 
monplace young man. . . . People wlio have not 
been brought into intimate converse with young 
women have little idea of tlie extent to which they 
suffer from perplexities of conscience. ' The dis- 
content of the modern girl ' is not mere idle self- 
torture. Busy men and women — and j^eojDle with 
disciplined minds — can only, by a certain strain of 
the imagination, conceive the situation. If they at 
all entered into it, they could not have the heart to 
talk as they do. For the case of the modern girl is 
peculiarly hard in this, that she has fallen upon an 
age in which idleness is accounted disgraceful. The 
social atmosphere rings with exhortations to act, act 
in the living present. Everywhere we hear that 
true happiness is to be found in work — that there 
can be no leisure without toil — that people w^lio do 
nothing are unfruitful iig trees w^hich cumber the 
ground. And in this atmosphere the modern girl 
lives and breathes. She is not a stone, and she does 
not live underground. She hears people talk, she 
listens to sermons, she reads books. And in her 
reading she comes across such passages as the fol- 
lowing : ' It is real pleasure to me to find that you 
are taking steadily to a profession, without w^hich I 
scarcely see how a man can live honestly. That is, 
I use the term jprofession in rather a large sense, 



DISCONTENT OF THE MODERN GIRL. 123 

not as simply denoting certain callings which a man 
follows for his maintenance, but rather a definite 
field of duty, which the nobleman has as much as 
the tailor, but which he has not who, having an in- 
come large enough to keep him from starving, 
hangs about upon life, merely following his own 
caprices and fancies ; quod factu jpessimum esV * 

" Or, again, siich a passage as this : ' Que de 
femmes, si vous exceptez les meres qui se donnent 
a leur famille, que de femmes, helas, dont la vie se 
passe entiere dans de futiles occupations, ou dans 
des conversations plus futiles encore! Et Ton 
s'etonne que, rongees d'ennui, elles rercherchent 
avec frenesie toutes les distractions imaginables ! 
Elles accusent la monotonie de leur existence d'etre 
la cause de ce vague malaise ; la vraie cause est 
ailleurs, elle est dans la fadeur intolerable, non d'une 
vie depourvue d'evenements et d'aventures, mais 
d'une vie dont ou n'entrevoit pas la raison ni le but. 
On se sent vivre sans qu'on y soit pour quelque 
chose, et cette vie inconsciente, absurde, inspire un 
mecontentment trop fonde.' f 

" Such things the modern girl reads, and every 
word is confirmed by her own experience. . . . She 



* Letter to Dr. Greenhill, an old pupil, in Life of Dr. Ar- 
nold, p. 392. 

f Sermons par T. Colani, Deuxieme Recueil, p. 293. 



124: HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

seeks for counsel, and she finds it. Slie is bidden to 
' look around her ' — to do the duty that lies nearest. 
. . . She looks around her, and sees no particular call 
to active exertion. The duties that lie in the way are 
swallowed up by an energetic mother or elder sister. 
. . . She feels no sort of impulse to take up any 
particular pursuit or to follow out a course of 
study ; and so long as she is quiet and amiable, and 
does not get out of health, nobody wants her to do 
anything. Her relations and friends — her world — 
are quite satisfied that she should ' hang about life, 
merely following her own ' (or their own) ' ca- 
prices and fancies.' The advice given, so easy to 
off^r, so hard to follow, presupposes exactly what 
is wanting — a formed and disciplined character, able 
to stand alone and to follow steadily a predeter- 
mined course without fear of punishment or hope 
of reward. Ought we to wonder that, in the great 
majority of cases, girls allow themselves to go drift- 
ing down the stream, despising themselves, but list- 
lessly yielding to what seems to be their fate ? 

''An appeal to natural guides is most often 
either summarily dismissed or received with re- 
proachful astonishment. It is considered a just 
cause of surprise and disappointment that well 
brought up girls, surrounded w^ith all the comforts 
of home, should have a wish or a thought extend- 



PARENTS FAIL TO UNDERSTAND. 125 

ing beyond its precincts. And perhaps it is only 
natural that parents should be slow to encourage 
their daughters in aspirations after any duties and 
interests besides those of ministering to their com- 
fort and pleasure. In taking for granted that this 
is the only object, other than that of marriage, for 
which women were created, they are but adopting 
the received sentiment of society. No doubt, too, 
they believe that in keeping their daughters to 
themselves till they marry they are doing the best 
thing for them as well as pleasing themselves. If 
the daughters take a different view, parents think it 
is because they are young and inexperienced, and 
incompetent to judge. The fact is, it is the parents 
who are inexperienced. Their youth was different 
in a hundred ways from the youth of this genera- 
tion ; and the experience of thirty years ago is far 
from being infallible in dealing with the difficulties 
and perplexities of the present. 'No doubt, young 
people are ignorant and want guidance. But they 
should be helped and advised, not silenced. Parents 
take upon themselves a heavy responsibility when 
they hastily crush the longing after a larger and 
more purposeful life." * 

And that is done daily, not only in England, but 

* The Higher Education of Women, by E. Davies, p. 47. 



126 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

also in Germany. Who lias the courage to saj that 
the sympathetic description of Miss Davies does not 
lit om' circumstances? Who is bold enough to 
assert that every young lady in our wealthy families 
can find sufficient occupation for her internal and 
external life if she but look for it? A number 
of them probably. There are families in which the 
daughters are sufiiciently and satisfactorily occupied 
with domestic duties ; there are other girls who 
without being really occupied are contented in 
beautifying the lives of their parents and friends of 
the family as welcome home-spirits until they mar- 
ry; or, if they do not marry, they lead a hapj^y, 
peaceful existence, full of blessing for others, as the 
ever welcome " aunties." But blissful such an ex- 
istence is only when it is chosen voluntarily. If the 
girl who is to beautify life fights a battle royal 
with the desire to be of use, to create an existence 
of her own, it would seem a downright sin com- 
mitted upon undying reason to deny it to her, pro- 
vided no real duty intercedes. Now% what kind of 
an existence is she to create for herself ? That 
Avhicli she chooses. It stands to reason that not all 
these young girls can devote themselves to uni- 
versity studies ; the word of charm against modern 
pessimism is not university culture, but %oorh — use- 
ful, practical work generally. That the need of 



THE TEACHER'S PROFESSION. 127 

that is growing more and more is shown by the 
great number of female candidates crowding the 
examinations for teachers' certificates. And they 
are not all driven to it by material want, but a con- 
siderable nmnber of them simply look for a firm 
discipline, a definite aim to work up to. Even the 
desolate memory work that is required of them by 
a series of examinations seems to be preferable to 
the utter emptiness of their existence, preferable 
also to amateur work, this intellectual nibbling and 
aimless listening to fashionable lectures. Complaint 
is raised about the crowds of female applicants at 
teachers' examinations, and they are interpreted as 
evil signs of the time. There caii he no hetter sign. 
That a thing happens which in former times would 
have been thought outrageous, namely, that the 
daughters of our first families long for work, and de- 
mand rational, intelligent assistance in, and control 
of their studies, that they elevate the profession 
upon which they used to look down, may be, and 
should be, considered a gain which can not be 
gauged too high. 

But the teacher's profession is not everybody's 
calling. Let them choose another. It is equally 
gratifying to notice that nursing the sick is begin- 
ning to be taken up as a profession and that it is 
deemed important enough to be learned profession- 



128 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

ally. Likewise it is a sign of better times that the 
kindergartens begin to attract the girls of better 
situated classes. The dominion of art industry also 
— yes, and trades — are opening to women. All that, 
however, is insufficient. If work is to have a re- 
deeming influence, it must be chosen in conform- 
ity with one's taste. One nmst have the right to 
choose according to one's o\\^n powers and talents. 
E'obody chooses otherwise. Hence no field of 
labor should be denied, not even the highest intel- 
lectual labor. Those who intellectually hunger 
should be offered the best intellectual food available 
in Germany. 'No one should in Germany be denied 
opportunities to fill that inner desolate void, no one 
obliged to stifle what is considered the highest sign 
of superiority — a longing for serious mental and 
professional work. Yet this murder of the mind is 
committed daily in our country. 

Should any one be impenetrable to such argu- 
ments for offering professional training and the 
professions themselves to women he may be open 
to practical ones. They are the ever increasing 
need of women and the necessity for employing 
them in certain professions. It is still customary to 
deny the need among German w^omen. A few 
figures will j)rove it. According to the census of 
December 1, 1885, Germany had 15,181,823 adult 



RATIO OF UNMARRIED WOMEN. 



129 



WOMEN 



women, that is, women of marriageable age, sixteen 
years and over. Of tliese, 7,944,445, or 52*3 per cent, 
were married ; 5,155,241, or 34 per cent, were un- 
married ; 2,082,137, or 13*7 per cent, had been mar- 
ried. Hence, taking the last two numbers together, 
there were 7,237,378 women, or 47*7 per cent, with- 
out " natural support- 
er," leaving out of con- 
sideration the fact that 
many of those who had 
this supporter were still 
without support. 

The number of un- 
married women and 
widows who are not 
working for their sup- 
port, or only indiffer- 
ently, who either by family connection or in pos- 
session of a fortune of their own are in circum- 
stances that shield them (if not from intellectual) 
from material want, that number I estimate at about 
two millions. Hence, leaving out of sight the 
number of women who work for the support of 
their families and thus aid the " natural supporter," 
there must be five million women, unmarried or 
widows, who temporarily or permanently earn their 
own living, and, in many cases, those dependent 





MAARIED 

52.3^ 




^AVE BEE^ 
MARRIED 

13.7^ 


NOT 


MARRIED 
Sifo 


X 


X 


X 


X 


X 


X 










X 


X 


X 




X 


X 


X 








X 


X 


X 




X 


\ 


X 








X 


X 


X 




X 


\ 


X 








X 


X 


X 


X/^ 


X 


X 


X 










X 






X 


\ 


X 








X 


X 


X 




X 


\ 










X 


X 


X 




X 


\ 












X 


X 


X 




X 


X 










X 


X 


X 




X 


X 











130 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

upon them. ]^ow, as far as tlie lower strata of so- 
ciety are concerned, a part of tliem find occupation 
quite easily, partly in positions as servants occupied 
with purely female work, partly competing with 
men, with whom they stand in perfect equahty, if 
not in wages, at least in regard to intellectual cult- 
ure. Many of these have to toil inexpressibly, but 
they have at least the satisfaction that the men have 
no better lot than theirs. In these w^alks of life 
there are no arbitrarily made differences between 
man and woman. The woman question in the lower 
classes is therefore only an integral part of the great 
social problem. But in the middle and higher 
classes we meet an arbitrary disparity, hence, one 
that may easily be removed ; and in these classes we 
meet most unmarried women. Here man has privi- 
leges ; he has not only advantages given him by na- 
ture, but also advantages bestowed upon him by 
society, that is, by his own sex ; and thus the weight 
of the misery, which may be supposed if we look at 
the foregoing figures, is doubled. He has all the op- 
portunities for education, and all imaginable facili- 
ties. To woman is denied the state's sanction, even 
to an education acquired independently of state aid, 
except the professional education of a teacher. To 
him are open all the many places in the civil service, 
where a life-long maintenance is awaiting him ; to 



THE CRY OF DESPERATION. 131 

women places are oj^en to such limited extent that 
they almost disappear from sight. 

And yet a cry of desperation is raised among the 
better educated classes, that is, among the ones who 
have fewest prospects, when their women make an 
attempt at participating in the privileges of man in 
order to acquire the knowledge made necessary for 
competition by the existing circumstances, and they 
are ever and again reminded of their " natural call- 
ing." Yerily, he is not to be envied for his heart or 
his judgment who in the face of the foregoing fig- 
ures still has the courage to point out to those who 
cry for bread or a satisfactory sphere of activity a 
calling which they are unable to follow. In the face 
of the foregoing figures such phrases as "natural 
calling " and the " position of woman as assistant of 
man " are cruelty. The statistical data, or ratios, 
mentioned are not essentially different from those in 
other countries ; but everywhere a beginning is made 
in removing the separating barriers. The fate of wo- 
men is made easier by opening all the professions, 
and thus offering at least a limited number of them a 
satisfactory maintenance. The greater physical and 
mental power of resistance man has, and his higher 
capacity for competition resulting therefrom will 
still leave the great majority of women in misery. 
I am at present concerned about the learned profes- 



132 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

sions. It is obvious, tlien, tliat by opening them to 
only a limited number of women, a certain class only 
Avould be benefited. How the other classes might 
be benefited can be seen in France, England, Bel- 
gium, Switzerland, and in parts of southern Ger- 
many where women are employed in railroads, tele- 
graph, telephone, and postal service. That in all 
these spheres talent and training must decide is a 
matter of course ; but that talent and training should 
be found wanting in Prussian women is scarcely 
credible. 

The necessity of having w^omen in certain spheres 
of action where formerly they were not found has 
made itself felt chiefly in the medical profession. 
It is generally acknowledged that female phyd- 
cians have become a necessity, owing to the phe- 
nomenal increase of female maladies. Yet, rarely 
does any one take the part of women to oppose 
those arguments of male physicians which are 
not always prompted by the purest of motives. 
These men, strange to say, have recently found 
an eloquent ally in Prof. "Wilhelm Waldeyer, 
who, in the last congress of natural scientists at 
Cologne, gave utterance to a loud protest against 
the opening of the medical profession to w^o- 
men. I can not leave this protest unnoticed in 
view of the elevated position "Waldeyer occupies^ 



WOMEN IN ANCIENT TIMES. 133 

and because he touches some points of vital im- 
portance. 

If Waldeyer intends to say tliat among the an- 
cient civiHzed nations the position of women has 
])een equally favorable with that of men, it needs 
better proofs than such examples furnish as the 
"hetaeri" of Greece, who participated in politics 
{das politisirende IIetaerenthum\ or the women of 
the Roman empire. If these women knew no social 
barrier, other causes hindered them from accom- 
plishing anything in art or science. Their sisters 
were incapable of rising because of mechanical 
drudgery or paralyzing oppression of unworthy 
dependence ; but they were enervated by luxury, 
and had become incapable of intellectual initiative ; 
they could at most only play coquettishly with 
intellectual questions. A double curse rested upon 
woman during ancient times — a mind-killing op- 
pression of mechanical work, or else the enervating 
charm of voluptuous indolence. Woman was either 
a slave or an article of luxury. The woman of the 
middle ages, also, though she began to distinguish 
herself by more refined culture of the mind, and 
often found satisfaction in it, did not know the 
strongest incentives to intellectual work — neither 
the necessity of professional labor nor the feeling 
of outer and inner independence that has been 



134 inCIlEli EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

developed so strongly in our time, nor even the 
intellectual need which is perceived more acutely 
now than during the middle ages — ages that had 
for material and for intellectual need an equally ap- 
plicable panacea, the convent. Hence we are justi- 
fied in saying, that oidy in our modern age have 
conditions arisen that enable woman to show what 
she can do. 

But I admit that if in these women a great 
creative power had been alive they never would 
have tolerated the pressure of the unfavorable cir- 
cumstances mentioned. I furtliermore readily ad- 
mit that, in comparing the intellectual talents of 
the two sexes, we iind that creative power in much 
greater degree in man than in woman, hence, that 
science and art will till doomsday be promoted more 
by man than by woman. Waldeyer confronts this 
creative activity by woman's receptivity ; but he en- 
tirely forgets that between them lies a third activity 
— the practical application of science and art. It 
may be possible that a woman rarely if ever essen- 
tially promotes science ; but is that a reason why 
she should not practice it ? If a line is to be drawn 
around the practice of learned professions where 
independent creative activity begins, it is reason- 
able to suppose that the women, with few excep- 
tions, w^ill stand outside of that line, hut also ninetij 



ORIGINALITY NOT THE STANDARD. 135 

j^er cent of the inen. If all tlie male physicians and 
teachers who are not capable of promoting science 
independently be excluded from their professions, 
nine tenths of mankind would not know to whom 
to apply for relief in case of sickness, or would not 
know to whom to appeal for education. Why the 
capability of independent scientific work should be 
made a criterion for the practitioner I fail to com- 
prehend. A physician or a teacher who has the 
talent for original work is not unconditionally the 
best in his profession ; he is apt to neglect his 
daily duties. The woman whose mental ability is, 
if not sufficient for essential promotion of science, 
at any rate fully sufficient for an independent prac- 
tice of the physician's or teacher's profession will 
concentrate all her attention upon the j^ractical ap- 
plication of her professional knowledge ; and, if 
looked at from a disinterested standpoint, she ought 
to be welcomed, because she relieves man and liber- 
ates his powers for the further promotion of sci- 
ence ; and if, as Waldeyer fears, the number of men 
devoting themselves to the medical profession will 
decrease if women gain admission to it, this could 
only be deplored in case men were actually superior 
to women in their practical skill also ; but competi- 
tion alone can prove it. 

Prof. "Waldeyer is right. " The mind is the 



136 HIGHER EDUCATION OP WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

most terrible weapon of tlie liiiman being." This 
sentence being true, I long to be able to see wliy the 
men constantly employ physical strength in order to 
keep women from the intellectual arena ! If it is 
true " that in all cases in which man and woman 
in free competition enter any sphere of action 
woman is always defeated," why, then, move heaven 
and earth in order to keep her from being defeat- 
ed ? Why does Prof. "Waldeyer call upon the 
authorities to protect the stronger sex against the 
weaker? It must be that there is something not 
quite right in the female brain ; for not even the 
logic of such an argument is understood by it. 

However, science is said to suffer when women 
enter the learned professions, and the men are not 
strong enough to keep it from harm ! It is really 
a very fine psychological touch that makes Adam 
say, " The woman gave me of the tree and I did 
eat." The same thing is expressed by Max Jor- 
dan, in a preface which I dislike to see in the 
book of a woman ; he says that the women are the 
cause of the degeneration of German literature — 
^' the woman gave it to me and I did eat." The 
objection is scarcely to be taken in earnest. 

In what Prof. Waldeyer next says of sexual 
differentiation and the division of labor resulting 
therefrom there is much truth. He draws the 



THE SPHERE OF WOMAN. 137 

conclusion from it that woman had better stay 
within that sphere in which she possesses natural 
powers and capability for development. Exactly; 
but what sphere is that ? Man decides that for her. 
Much is said of npvtural instincts. If at present the 
women demand in ever increasing numbers to have 
their share in the work of civilization, in the pro- 
fession which the men have claimed for themselves, 
I think that this is instinct, a feeling or conscious- 
ness that their natural sphere is more extended than 
the one assigned to them hitherto. It is, in other 
words, a resentment of nature against those who 
intend to oppress it. The necessary division of 
labor does not seem to me to agree with the di- 
vision of vocations of which Prof. Waldeyer speaks 
so plausibly. According to him, we women should 
have to claim a good deal more, because the voca- 
tions now all belong to men. Mrs. Weber calls at- 
tention to the fact that the Chinese in the United 
States already do laundry work ; is that, perhaps, 
to be claimed by men as man's vocation ? But we 
women are very tolerant ; none of us protest against 
that. "We modestly demand nothing else than that, 
onutatis Qmttandis, Lessing's questions regarding the 
preacher and the dramatist be applied : " May a 
man devote himself to woman's work ? Why not, 
if he will? May a woman practice man's calling? 



138 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

Why not, if she can ? " So far as Nature dictates 
a division of vocations, we all agree. Mathilde 
Lammers is right when she says : " At the anvil I 
shall always imagine a man ; at the cradle, always 
a woman." The inner household, the management 
of the family, are things which a woman will never 
give up ; the outward defense of the peace of the 
house will always be assigned to the greater physi- 
cal strength of the man. In this division there is 
nature; but not in the separation of intellectual 
and mechanical labor, of which the latter, though 
claiming a great amount of physical exertion, is 
willingly assigned to the wife; the former, as the 
more interesting, more satisfactory, and more lucra- 
tive, is claimed by the husband. Women have the 
same right to intellectual labor that the men have, 
and the differentiation of sexes will only partly be 
expressed in the division of vocations. It will 
partly be felt in the individual manner in which 
the same vocation is considered and practiced by 
the different sexes. If man, for instance, will 
bring to the profession of teaching greater acute- 
ness of thought, better system, and greater power, 
the woman will furnish greater versatility, power 
of adaptation, and, above all, more patience. If 
both sexes participate, the profession can only gain 
by it ; one sex will learn from the other. To this 



CONDITIONS OF EXISTENCE. I39 

it is to be added, that in the profession of teaching 
and the medical profession the fact of there being 
two sexes in the human race is an additional cause 
for employing both; girls are better taught by 
women, boys by men, and many sick women want 
to be treated by women only. 

Despite all objections that he raises, Prof. Wal- 
deyer acknowledges that it is a serious task " to se- 
cure for women other conditions of existence " ; he 
grants that the woman question deserves intense 
and permanent interest. But I fail to find in what 
other manner that interest should take effect, except 
in removing the barriers which prevent woman 
from creating her own " conditions of existence." 
That is the only way she can be helped. I believe 
that Prof. Waldeyer is serious in claiming a sym- 
pathy with the cause. lie disdains, though an op- 
ponent of higher female education on principle, the 
many favorite and often-used exaggerations and mis- 
representations, although he lays too much stress 
upon the opinion of some unchivalrous opponents 
of women. But search as carefully as I may, I can 
find no way in which the interest spoken of can be 
promoted, and, strange to say, he does not indicate 
any either. For the proposition he makes, to leave 
it to the professors to admit some specially talented 
women to their lectures, can scarcely be considered 



140 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

as seriously promoting tlie interests of women. A 
diploma of graduation is demanded of the man, not 
special talent. AH men intend to earn their bread 
—those who are not specially talented as well as 
the rest, and they intend to secure it by means of 
diligence and average results. The same holds good 
with women. Why should exceptional conditions 
be imposed upon them ? 

But enough of this, and enough of the medical 
profession. Among the practical reasons why the 
universities should be opened to women may be 
counted the necessity to procure female teachers 
who are thoroughly versed in science. 

How I personally regard the question, I have 
expressed emphatically enough. I should consider 
it a mistake if any university studies, especially 
philology, were made obligatory in the highest 
grade of girls' high schools. Though I have been 
convinced that the average woman (where hundreds 
study it will hardly do to speak of exceptions) is 
capable of pursuing scientific studies to a much 
higher degree than I had assumed at first, and 
though I have been convinced also that woman 
may preserve her womanliness in such a pursuit, I 
have nevertheless not changed my views. Every 
one knows that the English universities are not, like 
ours, special schools of the four faculties, but more 



HIGH-ROADS AND FOOT-PATHS. 141 

like nurseries of general culture. On account of 
tins character and owing to their less higli aims, the 
English university is more suitable, according to my 
ideas, for preparing teachers who are not neces- 
sarily to be scholars. But such things are matters 
of opinion, and I can not expect to see the same 
kind of a bark grow on all trees. I, for my part, 
have wished and asked for the establishment of 
special institutions for female teachers in which 
their studies, without injury to thoroughness, ai'e 
directed with reference to their future vocation. 
This motion has been rejected abruptly, without 
opening ways upon which the teachers might ac- 
quire the necessary professional education. Every 
attempt at realizing even partially the ideas men- 
tioned before w^ill be hailed w^ith delight by me ; 
thus, for instance, the establishment of professional 
courses in history and German in the Victoria Ly- 
ceum, which have been made possil)le through the 
warm interest which our Empress Frederick enter- 
tains for teachers. 

But that is only a narrow foot-path w^liich but 
few can walk in. If not any more broad and straight 
roads are to be built, if under sanction of the Gov- 
ernment only these two brandies are to be taught and 
in one city of Germany alone (mere private enter- 
prise has not the least value for obvious reasons), it 



142 niGUER EDUCATION OP WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

would seem unjust to refuse female teachers who can 
not walk this road permission to select another, even 
though it be a roundabout one. Hence, if they (as 
I have noticed repeatedly) liave the desire to pursue 
a university study, believing that thereby they will 
find greater satisfaction for their own ambition, no 
one should hinder them in that. Since the author- 
ities guarantee the women teachers in their certifi- 
cates of examination the right to teach in the higli- 
est grades of school, the acquisition to this for- 
mal riglit is not dependent upon any definite uni- 
versity course, and lience the women may select 
whatever branches they see fit. I consider a mere 
imiversity course unfit for tlie preparation of female 
teacliers, and I am very decided in my belief that 
it would 1)0 attended by great dangers for our girls' 
schools if a university course were made obligatory. 
And yet the necessity for granting female teachers 
the opportunity to learn true science somewhere is 
so urgent that, in view of the hopelessness of seeing 
my own plans realized, I advocate this oj^tional 
studying. If it is an evil, it is at least the smaller 
of two evils, and we are almost forced to choose it. 
After the explicit refusal of our certainly modest 
demands, the question arises : Shall our teachers 
again be condemned to elementary knowledge which 
precludes higher aspirations, or shall they at least 



OVERESTIMATE OF PniLOLOGY. I43 

have a possibility of liiglicr studies after leaving the 
normal school ? Shall they in this roundabout way 
attempt to acquire that practical and theoretical 
knowledge which should be combined hy all means ? 
In Ziirich this way has been adopted for some time, 
and it is my opinion that it would be unjust to keep 
those who want to use it from doing so. It is con- 
fidently expected that scholarships will be granted 
in time, as has been done for students of medicine 
and the natural sciences. But I should raise my 
voice to w^arn against an overestimate of 2)hilological 
studies. A few years' sojourn in foreign countries 
is of more decided value, provided sufficient prepa- 
ration has been had, than philological studies in a 
university ; I mean for female teachers of the upper 
grades of girls' schools, because those studies in a 
university contain much that is totally unproductive 
for our girls' schools. Literary, historical, and 
scientific studies obtained in German universities 
could be recommended for female teachers, if — yes, 
if there was a Germany in wdiich science was free 
for women also. 

That many of my colleagues, as I have become 
aware of late, would rather take a course in a uni- 
versity than a course better fitted for themselves 
as well as for the subserpient application in school, 
is easily explained by the fact that man, upon whose 



144 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

opinion all these things hinge, will not consider a 
study worth much nnless it is the same in kind with 
his. The course I have suggested may require, per- 
haps, the same exertion, the same sacrifices of time 
and money, without offering the same advantages 
that university study and university degrees possess. 
The future will judge these things differently. 
Meanwhile we have to reckon w^ith arguments of 
this kind, and it w^ll be owing to them if such ar- 
rangements as have been made in the Victoria 
Lyceum, gratifying as they may be, do not in 
time to come find the recognition and use which 
are desirable. Another unfortunate feature is 
this — the female teachers stiidying in the Ber- 
lin Victoria Lyceum have to teach during the 
day. If the authorities w^ould here use some of 
their prerogatives to ease the burden of these teach- 
ers by giving them a leave of absence for a portion 
of the day, as is done in like cases with the male 
teachers, much w^ould be done to make the experi- 
ment a success. As it is, it appears to me as though 
a beginner in the art of swimming is made to go 
into the water with a heavy load around his neck. 
But perhaps the prospect of a future and appropri- 
ate employment would make these women bear even 
this double burden. Woman, like man, dislikes to 
work in vain. But what is to be expected in this 



DISADVANTAGES OF WOMEN. 145 

direction can best be expressed with Dante's words, 
'' Ye wlio enter liere leave all hope behind." It 
is not impossible that these circumstances make the 
courses offered in the Lyceum a gift from the Danai. 
If they prove a failure {ini Sande verlavfen)^ it will 
be alleged that it proves a w^ant of desire to learn 
on the part of woman, while, in fact, it would be at- 
tributable to other causes. Meanwhile, let us hope. 
It is a very favorable sign for our female teachers 
that they desire a higher education, and that they 
have, without any apparent prospect for promo- 
tion and in spite of being occupied all day with 
teaching, undertaken these higher studies. Let us 
wish and hope that their strength and courage will 
hold out to the end. If no other schools, then, at 
least the private schools will actively appreciate 
their efforts. 



10 



\ 



CHAPTER IX. 

CAUSE OF FAILURE IN GERMANY. 

We liave now bronglit together sufficient mate- 
rial to proceed to a systematic reply to tlie question, 
Why is it that the women of Germany do not suc- 
ceed in a cause in which the women of other civil- 
ized nations have succeeded ? Do they have to look 
for the causes in themselves, or are the men the 
causes, or can it be accounted for by insurmountable 
obstacles ? 

For the purpose of arriving at a satisfactory an- 
swer, I will reverse tlie order of these three queries 
and begin wdth the third, for the unfavorable cir- 
cumstances are invariably put into the foreground 
when we women point out that in other countries 
the woman question is about to be solved by granting 
them the requisite liberties and concessions. We are 
told that there are as yet a great many men to be ' 
provided for ; but that is the case in other countries, 
also, where their sex does not give them so much of 
a preference as in Germany. I know full well that 



CAUSES OP FAILURE IN GERMANY. 147 

an inquiry for the reasons of tliis preference is 
tlionglit very indiscreet. But to an unbiased mind 
it will ever seem odd that the strong man should 
find the protection of the government so much more 
readily than the weak woman, who, in the battle for 
subsistence, has such serious disadvantages that it 
would seem as though she deserved being taken care 
of first. Is man a human being of the first class, 
woman one of the second, in Germany ? Or is it 
supposed that hunger and privation are less painful 
to woman ? We are told the man deserves to be 
provided for first, because he has to provide for 
others. Yet I know of no woman earning her own 
living who does not support either her old parents, 
or brothers at school, or other needy members of her 
family. Hence the principle can not be applied 
against all women. And, in truth, it is not appli- 
cable at all ; for the inference w^ould be that mar- 
ried men — not only under like qualifications, where 
such a preference might be justified sometimes but 
at all times — would be preferred to unmarried ones ; 
that the claim for support should rise in exact pro- 
portion to the number of children. In carrying out 
this principle, the salaries would be in proportion to 
the wealth of children, and every new arrival in the 
family would be the ^' cause of an increase of sal- 
ary " ; furthermore, that the salary should stand in 



148 HIGHER EDUCATION OP WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

inverse proportion to private income, and so forth. 
"Wlio would advance such absurdities ! But if one 
refuses to accept its consequences, tlie principle is of 
no account. Indeed, it is only lield up against wo- 
men. When men among themselves compete with 
one another one thing only is taken into considera- 
tion — the position is given to him who is the most 
capable. "Wliy is not this extended over both sexes ? 
And why is not the opportunity offered to women 
as well as to men to obtain the requirements want- 
ing ? There are evidently only two cases possible — 
either all men are more capable than all women 
(then the former have nothing to fear from the 
competition of the latter and could refute the wo- 
men by granting their demands) or some women 
are more capable than some men ; is it just in that 
case to keep the less capable men in positions that 
by right belong to the more capable women \ 

In short, I shall have to be satisfied with an an- 
swer to my question like that which I heard some- 
body give a little girl recently who complained that 
her brother had received a larger piece of cake than 
she : " Well, is not he a boy \ " The answer had a 
silencing effect. 

But let us further examine the conditions pecul- 
iarly German that are said to be always obstacles 
in the way of higher education of women. " The 



EQUALITY WANTED. 149 

conditions tliat exist at our universities do not admit 
it." Why not ? The examinations are more difficult 
than elsewhere. May be, but who asks that they 
should be made easier for women ? The demand is 
that women be admitted under precisely the same 
conditions applied in the case of men. If the women 
prove less capable to come up to the requirements, 
as may probably be the case in the beginning, it 
could only please those who desire to limit the 
higher studies of women ; but that the degree of 
difficulty of the examinations should be a cause for 
non-admittance of the woman is incomprehensible 
to me. Furthermore : '' Our students would never 
tolerate females as fellow-students." Can we really 
be so far behind other nations in culture ? But that 
leads me to a point that deserves a more extensive 
treatment. 

It is true that the German student has yet many 
traits of the old university life {vom alien Bitrschen\ 
still, I think, he has enough reverence for woman 
to respect her, even if he sees her walking unfa- 
miliar roads, provided she remains a woman. But 
I do not require him to respect women to whom 
science is the subordinate, and the life of a student 
the principal object in view. I fear, in this respect, 
that much mischief has been done by foreign women 
in Switzerland, who hav^e thus made the life of their 



150 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

successors, wlio are bent upon pursuing science, a 
life of many hardships. The cause of unwomanly ex- 
cesses may be found in the fact that the young girls 
in the university often have no choice except to live 
as male students do without any restraint, to take 
their meals and to lodge without intimate associa- 
tion with older educated women. Of course, gradu- 
ally but surely, the sense for that which is proper 
gets blunted, and the maxim " Allowed is what is 
proper" must yield to " Allow^ed is wdiat pleases." 
I can suggest only one remedy, namely, the one 
that was applied in England, of course adapted to 
existing institutions. I mean the establishment of 
boarding institutions in which the students asso- 
ciate with older, finely educated women and are 
subject not to harsh discipline, but to moral influ- 
ence ; homes in which the student enjoys the same 
liberty that an educated and cultured lady has, or 
better, taJces in her own home. For the liberty to 
lead a street or tavern life, which seems to be the 
highest ambition for a young man after entering the 
university, is one which a cultured woman will not 
take even where the circumstances would permit 
it. Since she can not find interesting society in 
taverns and on the street, she needs it all the more 
at home. A woman must not, during the years of 
study, lose the instincts which make her seek her 



HOW TO LIVE AT THE UNIVERSITY. 151 

happiness at liome ; slie must not lose the standard 
of measurement for what she may or may not do. 
In time to come and under the influence of another 
kind of education she will be enabled to avoid 
breakers on which she is likely to experience ship- 
wreck at present. Independent and happily organ- 
ized natures may even now be able to manage their 
own affairs without danger for their future lives, 
but for the majority of German girls, raised as they 
mostly are, dependent upon others, a home like the 
English home-colleges (though less luxurious), with 
pleasant surroundings, musical evenings and teas, a 
little gentle discipline (for only such it must be), 
would be very welcome and useful. Many parents 
would be more willing to permit their daughters to 
satisfy their craving for higher studies, as Mrs. 
Weber sagely remarks, if it was not for the — 
blameless — ^living alone outside of the family circle. 
As the young female students need conlidential 
advice at home, so they need occasionally advice 
and aid in their studies. Both can not, as is the 
case with young men, be given by the professors. 
With less embarrassment and more confidence the 
young ladies would approach a woman for that pur- 
pose. It is reasonable to think that if a woman 
stood at the head of such an institution (as is the 
case in Girton College), a woman who knows the 



152 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

course of study pursued l)y llie students and lias 
been graduated lierself, she would give wise counsel 
and active assistance better than men could. In 
University College, in London, a lady superintend- 
ent has an office in the building where she may be 
called upon by the young lady students who need 
advice and assistance. This has proved to be prac- 
tical and effective, and does not lead to misunder- 
standings, since the conduct of the professors directs 
that of the students. There can be no objections to 
serious intellectual work done by women who live 
together, work done for a serious purpose. I leave 
out of consideration all who consider the pursuit of 
higher knowledge unwomanly, for I have no argu- 
ments to convince them. And I confidently believe 
that the male students of Germany would not treat 
the women improperly wdio thus come to be their 
fellow-students. 

In short, it does not seem to lie in external cir- 
cumstances that the women of Germany are not 
successful. Even pecuniary difficulties can not be 
advanced as causes of their signal failure. Germany 
is not so poor that it might not create facilities for 
higher education of women, since the existing insti- 
tutions for men could mostly be shared. 

Is it the men, then, wdio cause the signal failure ? 
Without doubt they are partly the cause. For 



MEN PARTLY THE CAUSE OF FAILURE. 153 

many years certain women have tried to interest 
men of influence in their cause, but it must be con- 
fessed, they have not found the reception that the 
women found among men in other countries. The 
year in which Girton College was founded, and the 
professors and students of Cambridge observed its 
growth with increasing interest, is the same year 
(1872) in which a teachers' congress at Weimar 
met with scorn and derision the Avomen who advo- 
cated the plan of founding a modest academy for 
women. The propositions and petitions which sub- 
sequently were submitted to the authorities with 
reference to that plan were left wholly unnoticed. 
The authorities engaged men exclusively as princi- 
pals in higher girls' schools, although women may 
be had who have through self-instruction gained the 
necessary requirements and have, proved in private 
schools that they are capable of managing schools 
as well as teaching the higher branches. A motion 
emanating from the " Lette-Yerein " to establish 
higher schools of learning for women was rejected ; 
the German "Woman's League, who made similar 
attempts, was equally unsuccessful, though they had 
such active women as Mrs. L. Otto-Peters, Mrs. A. 
Schmidt, and Mts. H. Goldschmidt as spokeswomen. 
Wherever woman was given a trial in any branch 
it was done with ill-concealed distrust. She was 



154 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

watclied suspiciously, aud at tlic first signs of weak- 
ness or error the trial was pronounced a signal fail- 
ure. Wherever women were busy in ^' man's call- 
ings" thej found, if not direct malevolence, cer- 
tainly not a hearty reception. 

I am reporting a few facts only. It w^ould be 
easy to enumerate many more. What is their cause ? 
It would be unjust to account for them exclusively by 
man's ill-will and fear of competition, though these 
motives must be considered. A great number of men 
are indifferent ; they never have thought about the 
woman question ; they do not know the needs that 
have called the question into life. That they do not 
know them is to be charged to their wives. The 
wife should persuade the husband to support the 
cause of women. That cause generally lies remote 
from men's professional walks. What they hear of 
it are accidental disconnected fragments of the great 
discussion, so unsatisfactory that the men turn away 
from them disgusted, amused, or exasperated. It is 
interesting to observe that most of those who feel 
exasperated are among the most chivalrous of their 
sex. Even men with exalted views of women, men 
with ideas of her difficult natural calling and the 
duties it requires, turn with disgust from the propo- 
sition to set up a new order of things for the dear 
ones whom they arc in duty bound to support or 



MEN DO NOT KNOW THE FxVCTS. I55 

protect. I liave often had occasion to notice that 
this chivalrous idea caused men to totally disregard 
the actual conditions under which woman lives, and 
particularly those numerous unfortunates who have 
no such knight, but are obliged to face the hard 
conditions of life single-handed, conditions that 
must be met. Every noble man can be convinced 
of his prejudices by logic and reference to existing 
facts, and he will be ready to yield to the right 
which he had unknowingly disregarded. 

But there are other men to be considered, those 
who apply derision as the only answer to the wo- 
man question. " Scoffing ends where comprehen- 
sion begins, says a psychologist. Indeed, mock- 
ery in this case can have no other origin than 
absolute ignorance. Every man with but half a 
conscience would be frightened if he knew the 
actual misery that has originated the woman ques- 
tion and become convinced that at the expense of 
such misery he had been entertaining his wit ; that 
with his derision, which he had been using so vic- 
toriously, he had been killing a thousand possibili- 
ties that might have given bread to the hungry, 
liappiness to the unfortunate — yes, even saved to hon- 
or those who are walking the ways of dishonor." * 

* Familie und Individuum, by J. M. Frauenberuf, vol. ii. 



156 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

If ill England tlie men were better acquainted 
with the woman question, and hence erred less 
through ignorance, the cause of this may be found 
in their own wives who informed them of its bear- 
ings ; generally, it may be said, the married women 
in England interested themselves in the question 
very actively. I shall certainly not attack German 
family life. It is distinguished from that of other 
nations in many features which I would not have 
otherwise, but it is more apt to make the women 
selfish; that is, it engenders family-mania — {selhst- 
mchtig — oder richtiger familien-silchtig). The life 
of a German housewife is so completely lost in her 
own interests and those of her family that she gives 
scarcely a thought, with some notable exceptions of 
course, to her sisters who stand outside, literally 
starving intellectually and wildly groping for a 
life's sustenance. She neglects to enlist her hus- 
band for the fight which the women can undertake 
and bring to a victorious issue only with the assist- 
ance of the men. She remains inactive until her 
own misery — perhaps in consequence of the loss of 
her supporter — forces her to reflect on the necessity 
of opening for woman ways upon w^hich she might 
obtain what she needs, and what no one is likely to 
give her of his own free will. 

There are even cases in which the wife holds 



DANGER IN HIGHER EDUCATION. 157 

back the husband from entering tlie movement in 
favor of women. That is a fatal mistake. In my 
opinion, there is no nobler and higher calling for 
woman than to live for her family in the true sense 
of the word, and no one deserves greater reverence 
than a mother who is to her children what she 
should be. But just because of my reverence 
for the German housewife, as she should be, for 
the woman who not only educates her daughters, 
but is also able to guard the interests of her hus- 
band and her adult sons, I would protest against 
the superstition, that the housewife and the scien- 
tifically educated woman are incongruities wdiich 
threaten to rend German life in twain. For the 
wife who does not understand the great interests of 
lier husband is not able to foster and increase his 
idealism which disdains material for higher gains, 
she will, on the contrary, endeavor to drag liim 
down to her low level. 

It is said that the best in woman is something 
quite different from knowledge. That is very true. 
And if she had not this best and had all the wisdom 
and intelligence on earth, she would be but like the 
proverbial "sounding brass and tinkling cymbal." 
This expression is more applicable to woman than 
to man. I go still further. There are exceptional 
eases in whom a sort of intuition seems to compen- 



158 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

sate for knowledge wanting ; who from tlie depth 
of their own inner self derive revelations which to 
others can only come from without. Happy are 
those who come into contact with such people. 
Such beings are found among men also ; I only need 
to mention Pestalozzi. But these exceptional cases 
are much rarer than is commonly taken for granted 
as regards women, of whom it is customary to say 
that they hit upon everything with this sort of in- 
tuition. For the average woman a thorough edu- 
cation is just as necessary, and exactly as valuable, 
as for the man, even if we leave out of considera- 
tion the pressing need which urges her to obtain it. 
"What it may mean for both, always provided they 
possess that one sine qua non that I believe to have 
sufficiently emphasized in the foregoing arguments. 
Those err who think education is able to do every- 
thing for the man but nothing for the woman. 

The fear of a thorough education of women is 
in Germany specifically modern ; the Middle Ages 
did not entertain it. Our modern time has cre- 
ated the " blue-stocking " because it refused higher 
knowledge to women and thus increased the de- 
mand for it till it became morbid and led to all 
kinds of eccentricities. Women, then, who are 
inclined toward a certain intellectual indolence are 
apt to cause the opinion in their husbands that 



HAVE WOMEN THE TIME? I59 

women really have no time for any serious study, 
and that it would scarcely be advisable for them to 
attempt it. This makes them disinclined to aid in 
the intellectual liberation of women, being taught 
to believe that this would estrange them from their 
true vocation. Since I have seen the much occu- 
pied wife of a clergyman (whose house w^as never 
without visitors, who had several children of her 
own and a large number of foster children, and yet 
contrived to look after their wants) spend an hour 
every noon in serious scientific study, not in novel 
reading ; since I know that it is possible to the 
housewife of the present, even under the most diffi- 
cult circumstances, to foster her intellect, experi- 
ence has taught me that women who are constantly 
at work in forming their intellectual world are best 
adapted to fulfill their duties as housewives and 
mothers. 

Perhaps the circumstances mentioned are the 
causes of the fact why we Germans have no Henry 
Sidgwick, no Dr. Anstie, and no Thomas Holloway. 

And yet, though we can mention but few men 
who have actively advocated our cause (one of these 
few has been President Lette), the number of those 
who would raise their voice for us, and who have 
justice enough to acknowledge our claims and the 
necessity for their final allowance, is increasing 



160 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN ELTROPE. 

steadily. I have tlie great pleasure of quoting one, 
in order to show our German women that we need 
not despair of the assistance of thoroughly educated 
men. The movement in favor of better profes- 
sional education of female teachers has shown us 
that last year. 

Clemens Nohl speaks in his "Pedagogy for 
Higher Schools " of the absolute necessity to grant 
the female sex a thorough education, and says the 
mother needs it for the sake of her family, the un- 
married woman for her own sake. 

" That the maiden is destined to become wife 
and mother is a proposition that sounds rational and 
natural, but the world treats it very impolitely and 
inconsiderately. Of course this destiny is all right if 
the maiden finds a man who can support her and a 
family, one who is worthy of her respect and love, 
as she is of his. Otherwise this destiny is as vague 
as is the destiny of man to virtue, health, wealth, 
happiness. . . . But a girl who does not find an 
honest and well-to-do man will have to become 
her own supporter, and in that case it can not be 
doubtful that a good school education will in many 
cases greatly assist an aspiration that is often dic- 
tated by inexorable need. And if the state and 
city authorities (who understand the requirements 
of the time) have for many a century established 



A PLEA FOR UNMARRIED WOMEN. 161 

institutions of learning, from the lowest special 
school Tip to the university, in which joung men 
can partly or entirely prepare themselves for their 
future professions, why should not the young wom- 
en set up the same claim ? 

" Or shall in Germany, where, in centuries gone 
by, girls and women were so highly honored, and 
where even now the educated woman enjoys the 
undiminished respect belonging to her — I mean, 
shall it be attended with material and moral dan- 
gers in Germany to be born a girl ? If educated 
parents can not bequeath wealth to their children 
— and that is the rule — shall the girls who have 
not found husbands (and such cases increase from 
year to year) eat the bread of charity in the homes 
of relations ? Shall they complain, aloud or secret- 
ly, that they can be of no use to mankind because 
mankind disdains their services, though rendered 
willingly, and refuses to offer their intellect oppor- 
tunities for application ? Shall they give them- 
selves up to shallow or even immoral novels, or be- 
come unamiable gossips, because they have not 
learned to occupy their minds ? Shall they morally 
go to ruin in the maelstrom of life ? 

" There are few institutions of learning requir- 
ing a certain degree of education in which woman 

can not accomplish acceptable results ; and the 
11 



162 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

privilege wliicli the male sex claimed in most 
branches, and in part still claims, is, if examined 
closely, a most unjust one. Among these branches 
is, first of all, the profession of teaching. Since 
Pestalozzi discovered in the mother the natural 
teacher and educator and raised woman to high 
honor in this important activity the employment 
of female teachers has become a live question, and 
will not disappear until the equality of the sexes 
has become an accomplished fact in the profes- 
sion. . . . The time is not very remote in which 
male teachers will be employed in schools for boys, 
and female teachers almost exclusively in schools 
for girls. 

'' A man can not have as clear a comprehension 
of the nature of girls as a woman, a representative 
of the same sex, undoubtedly has. He is more apt 
to make mistakes in treating them. Furthermore, 
in things essentially feminine in female education, 
such as fostering the sense of order, punctuality, 
cleanliness, graceful carriage of the body, propriety, 
and good manners, he can not nearly so well give 
advice and exercise supervision as a female teach- 
er, with w^liom such things are matters of course. 
Again, the very essential factor of education, per- 
sonal example, is almost wholly excluded, because 
woman has to practice, partly, at least, different 



FEMALE VERSUS MALE TEACHERS. 1G3 

virtues from those of man, and the same virtues 
not infrequently appear in different forms in the 
two sexes. To employ young unmarried male 
teachers in classes full of budding girls and girls 
growing into maturity is objectionable from a peda- 
gogical and even a moral point of view, which it 
is unnecessary to discuss here. Older teachers are 
often lacking in that vivacity in instruction which 
girls need often in a greater degree than boys and 
youths. 

"It is true, there are male teachers who, with 
girls of all ages, succeed admirably and exercise a 
wholesome influence upon them ; and, on the other 
hand, there are female teachers who accomplish 
nothing good, and even exercise a baneful influence. 
But frequently male teachers in girls' schools lack- 
ing the qualities mentioned before will secure the 
respect of their pupils by strict discipline which 
necessitates frequent punishment (and this sooner 
makes girls unmanageable than boys), or they are 
teased and cheated by cunning pupils without being 
aware of it, while in schools in w^hich chiefly female 
teachers are employed cases of discipline are rare, 
provided these teachers are professionally well 
qualified, and instruction and education proceed 
with less noise and friction. Yery often the in- 
tercourse between teachers and pupils in such 



164 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

schools is permeated witli the spirit of confidence 
and love. 

" That female teachers are not inferior to men 
in the faithful discharge of duty, that they are 
punctual in attendance, thorough in daily prepara- 
tion of their lessons, and equally conscientious in 
correcting written work at home, ... all that is 
not disputed. . . . Great weight also has the opinion 
of the Imperial Medical Commission, . . . which 
publishes the fact that the w^omen are not inferior 
to men in physical endurance. 

" Comparative statistics of absence of male and 
female teachers from school might give surprising 
results. 

"]N'ow, considering that there are fifty thou- 
sand elementary teachers* employed in Prussia, 
the question will at once arise : Are they really 
all following a natioral calling f Are they all 
called? Or are there not, on the contrary, very 
many among them who have either no talent or 
no inclination for their profession, or perhaps lack 
both? Similar conditions, perhaps, appear among 
the teaching forces in the secondary institutions, 
where a large number of the scientific teachers, 
numbering thousands, are employed, so that here, 

* Seventy-five thousand in 1886-'87, according to the ofiicial 
report. 



FAVORITISM SHOWN TO MEN. 165 

too, we might meet many who exercise a weak or 
even baneful influence in education as well as in 
instruction. We stand here face to face with facts 
and institutions which can not be more preposter- 
ous. Because male teachers who are fit for the 
profession can not be had in suflicient number, unfit 
ones are taken to fill all the vacancies ! . . . And 
yet, women might be had in whom skill and talent 
for teaching and educating children is inborn — at 
least as many as are found among men. There are 
thousands of useful women teachers by whom the 
vacancies might be filled ; but no, they are excluded 
in favor of useless men, and that, too, from girls' 
schools. 

" This revolting injustice, this coarse and vulgar 
favoritism shown the stronger sex may have been 
excusable at a time when the female sex had not 
yet given tangible proofs of its fitness for the teach- 
ing profession, and while great numbers of well- 
educated and cultured young ladies were not as 
yet obliged by dire necessity to support themselves 
in some way ; but since their usefulness for many 
years has been proved incontestably in a number 
of institutions of learning, and even the most ob- 
stinate stupidity begins to acknowledge the neces- 
sity of self-support on the part of many w^omen, 
both, state and communities, must at last consent to 



166 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

measure both sexes bj the same standard in the 
question at issue. ... In the lower grades of the 
elementary schools, in which no doubt boys and 
girls can be taught simultaneously, male and female 
teachers should both be employed. Not the sex, 
but the serviceableness should decide here. In the 
higher grades of elementary schools the sexes 
should be separated more than is done at present, 
and the girls be given over to female teachers ex- 
clusively. In all the classes of girls' high schools 
(or girls' academies, or whatever the name of these 
secondary institutions may be) female teachers are 
preferable, and the employment of men, even in 
the highest classes, should not be tolerated. Tal- 
ented men now teaching there may find employ- 
ment in boys' schools, where they may take the 
place of unfit teachers, and the latter make them- 
selves useful in other domains of labor. . . . 

" Such an increase in the employment of women 
would not only give thousands of talented, spirited 
young ladies who are obliged to support them- 
selves, opportunities to find an occupation suitable 
for their talents and powers, but it would unques- 
tionably improve the entire system of instruction 
in lower and higher institutions of learning. . . . 

" But there are other occupations in which the 
female sex is fully equal to the male sex ; to these 



WOMEN IN OTHER FIELDS OP LABOR. 167 

belongs the postal, telegraph, and railroad services. 
It is asserted, though, that in these, occupations 
women have been tried many times, and that these 
trials had proved them nniit, and that the chiefs of 
the different postal, telegraph, and railroad bureaus 
are not inclined to make the experiment again. 
Should this be true, the question would naturally 
arise (and it arises despite the great and well-known 
merits which these men have earned in their re- 
spective departments) whether these experiments 
were made with all due impartiality and without 
precipitation, and whether these high officials were 
not influenced by prejudices in passing judgment 
on the women. ... Or are the women in France 
and Belgium, where they are found in great num- 
bers in the most varied positions of responsibility 
and trust, cleverer and more trustworthy than 
with us? 

"If in previous pages the assertion has been re- 
peatedly made that certain fields of human activity 
might gain by the employment of female labor, we 
now wish to express the conviction that improved 
education— and through that improved usefulness of 
the female sex — would enable the latter to participate 
in the great civihzing activity of our time, to help 
in liberating mankind, in enlightening it in regard 
to religion and morality, and even act as propelling 



168 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

forces in social and political life. . . . Tlie serious 
as well as the minor problems of civilization and 
culture are becoming more numerous and compli- 
cated. Hitherto only half the human race, the 
male sex, has worked at their solution ; hence that 
solution has been in many cases insufficient and 
one-sided. The time has come in which the 
other half, equal in intellectual power and sup- 
plementing the former, should assist in solving 
them." ^ 

Thanks and honor to the man, who possesses 
ideality enough to deny himself the advantages his 
sex gives him to do homage to truth ! 

I have quoted him at length for a purpose. A 
better statement of the case can not be offered, and 
it is doubly valuable coming from a man. It has 
cost me some self-denial not to quote his remarks 
concerning the last point, the task woman could 
perform in ci\alization and culture. But it may 
suffice to merely call attention to the works of 
N'ohl, which in every part deserve the most care- 
ful consideration on account of their clearness 
and undaunted love of truth, for which their 
author merits the highest honor. IN'olil's writings 
are most valuable, especially for people who are 

* Paedac^ogik fuer hoehere Lehranstalten, Clemens Nohl, I 
Theil, p. 749. 



MEN GUILTY OF RETARDING THE CAUSE. 169 

interested in tlie present efforts for reform in edu- 
cation. * 

Though it can not be denied, leaving some few 
scattered male advocates of our cause out of consid- 
eration, that the men in general are guilty of re- 
tarding the woman question in Germany ; that they 
frequently, from prejudice, professional jealousy, 
or ignorance and indifference, block the ways the 
women offer to walk, it is, on the other hand, 
equally true that we women bear a great deal of 
the guilt ourselves. The sins of omission and com- 
mission of many married women have been men- 
tioned. It is reasonable to hope that the near 
future will witness an improvement in that direc- 
tion, since the present generation hears the moment- 
ous question discussed before marrying, and perhaps 
learns something of its vital importance from dire 
experience. As yet it is, in comparison with the 
population, an insignificant number of German 
women who can not be turned away from their ob- 
ject in view. Many of those who would like to ac- 
complish something, dislike the necessary means, or 
feel satisfied at having approached the goal half- 



* Until recently, three parts of his Paedagogik have appeared : 
Part I. Institutions of learning. Part IT. Methods for the dif- 
ferent branches of study. Part III. Training of teachers of 



170 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

way. Some are silent from fear of finding dis- 
pleasure among the men ; but he who dishkes to 
displease will never effect reforms. 

I am among the last who would resent a want 
of self-confidence and consistency in the oppressed, 
timid sex.* Man often finds it diflicult to think out 
his thoughts in all their consequences, how much 
more woman under such circumstances ! Time will 
gradually bring a change, extend the horizon, and 
strengthen the timid. But when want of self-con- 
fidence or short-sightedness assumes the form of a 
public protest against the training of female teach- 
ers, as it did repeatedly during the teachers' con- 
gress in Weimar last year, the interest of the cause 
demands that it be resented. Though many things, 
such as the application of the Biblical word, '' And 
he shall rule over thee," condemn themseh^es. This 
idea has found its proper reply in contributions 
found in Die Lehrerin (The Female Teacher), 
edited by Mrs. Loeper-Housselle. And if there 
are really female teachers who still consider such 
thorough training as I demand for them in the 

* It is to be regretted that this timidity goes so far as to pre- 
vent an immediate reply to the public disparagement of our sex 
that took place during the meeting of the congress in Eisenach, 
Oct. 1-4, 1888, where of all the women present not one arose 
to protest energetically, though doubtless all felt the affront 
keenly. 



WOMANLINESS. 171 

foregoing pages objectionable and unnecessary, they 
condemn themselves also, despite the applause it 
has found in educational journals. 

Also the protests in the name of womanliness do 
not disturb my conscience. WomanKness ! Beau- 
tiful, maltreated word 1 Oh, how much does it sig- 
nify — love, confidence, idealism, courage for the 
greatest sacrifice and greatness of soul ! And how 
is it that these people would define it? As pru- 
dishness and affectation I 

If women shrink from the unaccustomed j^rob- 
lems which our time offers, I shall not blame them 
for it, but those who are unable to cope with them 
should write, if write they must, only in the name 
of their own incapacity, and not make remarks 
which can only have reference to the education of 
the present generation of women, and hence only 
fortify the position of man. I am glad to meet 
them with the courageous word of Helene Adel- 
mann : " I feel that if I were allowed to con- 
centrate my entire energy as a teacher upon one 
branch I could cope with any man. If there is a 
woman who does not feel that she can accomplish 
the highest and best, she should not deny others the 
strength to do it, provided they remain within 
the limits of pure womanliness." Here i^e applaud. 

But I have to reply to another accusation, one 



172 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

which was raised against me publicly. I have been 
accused of want of gratitude. 

Gratitude ? Oh, I like to be grateful ; but I do 
not quite comprehend for what. We owe every- 
thing to man, I am told. If we were to count up, 
many items might be placed on our credit page. A 
woman's care and unfathomable love surround man 
from the cradle to his grave ; she provides his com- 
forts and the leisure he needs for his undisturbed in- 
tellectual w^ork. From the beginning of the world 
the women liave attended to the wants of men, have 
freed them from annoying material cares, have done 
the hardest slave's service for them in ancient times, 
and gone through the life of martyrs without mur- 
muring. This being so, we are obliged to view 
woman's condition historically. How did that con- 
dition arise? Natural inclination does not suffice 
to explain it. Ancient history reveals such a fright- 
ful degree of barbarism that not the least doubt 
can be entertained of the truth of the statement 
that the right of the stronger decided the position 
of women. With the right of physical strength 
man forced woman to render services as he pleased. 
But he gave her an equivalent in form of support 
as father, husband, brother, or guardian. The times 
w^ere so barbaric and manners so brutal that we 
can not imagine the position of woman in those 



HISTORICAL GUARDIANSHIP. 173 

ages without a personal protector and supporter. 
That the man should have derived the right of 
guardianship from his duty of protection and sup- 
port was quite natural. Unknown were reasons of 
a higher kind which might have hindered him from 
exercising this right of guardianship which in its ori- 
gin was nothing but the right of the stronger. Yet 
it is plain, and quite consistent with the develop- 
ment of the cause, that the guardianship should cease 
with the disappearance or discontinuance of the 
support. 'Now if at present a great number of 
German women are obliged to depend upon them- 
selves for their own support, it seems quite unfair 
that man, who has ceased to be their support and 
who is not their protector, should still exercise 
guardianship over them in regard to their educa- 
tion and professional activity. This "historical 
guardianship " has resulted in hindering the women 
Avho are not supported and protected by man from 
supporting themselves in a way corresponding to 
their desires and capacities. He prescribes for them 
an education as he sees fit, an education which is 
entirely incongruous with their own claims and 
needs. I can not possibly find in that a cause for 
gratitude. 

But willingly, and with all my heart, will I be 
grateful to those men who help the women gain 



174 HiaHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

the liberty of that education which legal and ideal 
considerations would suggest. The starting point 
of woman's present position was, as stated before, 
man's physical strength. ]^ow, in the same propor- 
tion in which the respect for physical superiority 
recedes and respect for moral qualities increases, in 
exactly the same proportion will man everywhere 
voluntarily renounce the guardianship so intimately 
connected with physical superiority, for nothing ex- 
cept this respect can induce him to do so. And I 
confidently believe that the German women deserve 
it as well as the women of other nations. No one is 
more zealous in praising the women than the Ger- 
mans, from Walter von der Yogelweide up to the 
present day. But I believe the time has come to 
prove this respect by deeds. The boy, when grown 
to manhood, should recollect the infinite love and 
care which his mother bestowed upon him ; he 
should prove his gratitude by assisting her sex to 
obtain that position to which it has an inborn right. 
Woman, I should think, might be credited now with 
that degree of intellectual maturity which enables 
her to decide what is good for herself. And if she 
desires more intellectual food, more efficacious labor 
than hitherto, man should not obstinately refuse it. 
If a tribe of savages showed the degree of intelli- 
gence now manifested by the German women, would 



LUKEWARM AND HALF-HEARTED WOMEN. 175 

not the men with great willingness open their uni- 
versities for them ? Would not every German pro- 
fessor contribute his share to induce the " cultiva- 
ble tribe " {bildungsfahigen Stamm) to acquire the 
highest intellectual culture for which it is aspiring ? 
Does any one think the case possible that this tribe 
should again and again vainly petition for admission 
to European culture and be repulsed w^ith derision 
and disgrace ? Every educated man would declare 
it despicable narrow-mindedness, and consider it a 
burning shame. 

Yet exactly the same thing is done with the 
German w^omen, because they are women ; for no 
other reason. Why, then, should we feel such deep 
gratitude toward the German men, and not venture 
to criticise the institutions made by them ? 

But let us return to the women. 

Though during the public discussion of the wo- 
man question, which grows more and more urgent, it 
is found that there are some women in Germany 
who belong to the lukewarm and half-hearted, to the 
short-sighted and timid, and that the co-operation is 
wanting which has led to excellent results in other 
countries, still it would be unjust not to recognize 
gladly that on the other hand the number of women 
is steadily increasing who are independent yet 
womanly in the true sense of the word, and who are 



176 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

consistent in thought and action. And there is no 
doubt that these women will in the course of time 
find the proper appreciation among the doubting 
and timid of their sex, who are not as yet aware of 
their own strength. In that the pioneers must find 
comfort. How willingly, how gladly one is a pio- 
neer for a great and pure cause like the intellectual 
elevation and liberation of a whole sex. This joyful 
prospect will take the sting out of the depressing 
consciousness that this pioneer work has been per- 
formed here by courageous women for twenty-five 
years without the great results achieved in other 
countries. It helps one forget a little, too, that one 
is personally misjudged. 

But it has been thought necessary to warn the 
German nation to beware of these pioneers. " These 
women," it is said, " aim at a total revolution of the 
social position of the educated woman." 

What does this really mean ? Are we by the 
term social position to understand the position of 
woman in human society and professional life in 
general ? Then it is perfectly correct. We are try 
ing with the aid of thorough-bred gentlemen to 
cause a change in the social position of woman. We 
wish to secure to woman the same liberty for her in- 
tellectual education that man has, and that will ne- 
cessitate a dislocation and readjustment in profes- 



IMPROVED SOCIAL POSITION. 177 

sional Kfe by replacing some incapable men by capa- 
ble women ; for the question of capability lias always 
been placed in the foreground by us, since it alone 
can decide the contest. Hence capable men need 
not fear anything. A warning, such as that alluded 
to, would only be a consequence of premises easily 
guessed. But if by the term social position the 
position of woman in relation to man, that is, to her 
husband, is understood, nothing need be feared from 
a higher education and an elevation of her position 
as wife resulting therefrom ; for the position of the 
wife in regard to her husband is not at all depend- 
ent upon his superiority. The inner superiority is 
not by any means always on the side of the husband 
either ; in the lower strata of society, where the 
degree of school education is equal, it is not even 
found in education. If, nevertheless, woman serves 
man in innumerable ways, makes his life pleasant 
and comfortable, and if her life is an "eternal 
coming and going, a lifting and bearing, a working 
and caring for others," it is because love and the 
exigences of her nature impel her to it ; and that 
will always be so whether she reads Marlitt or 
Sophocles in her leisure hours, else I but poorly 
understand woman's nature. But w^here remnants 
of that ancient oppression are still practiced, where 

to woman are offered, with legal sanction, all kinds 
13 



178 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

of ignominies, she is quite right to attempt to find 
redress. It is to be hoped that she will find the 
assistance of noble-spirited men who will secure to 
her the legal protection needed against her hus- 
band's abuse of power. The better part of married 
life, as it is slowly assuming form in all civilized 
countries, is based upon afliection, hence is safe 
from all attempts at emancipation. The attempts 
we are making are invariably directed toward break- 
ing unjust barriers which are set up to prevent 
woman from obtaining intellectual culture and in- 
creasing her professional capacity; they aie not 
aimed at a change of her position in married life. 
Only coarse people will try to escape from duties, the , 
fulfillment of which the woman's position necessi- 
tates, and in that they will never find support among 
true women. These w^ill never think of denying 
their husbands with what love has provided him 
from time immemorial. Only the men must not be- 
lieve they can demand as a tribute due their alleged 
superiority what love alone can give and will give 
willingly, plentifully, and forevermore. 

And where is the movement to end ? Exactly 
where the nature of the case and the nature of wo- 
man will demand that it should end. l^o one should 
think of being able to arrest it, nor need any one 
apprehend dangers where Nature is simply allowed 



IMPROVED SOCIAL POSITION. 179 

to speak ; she will erect barriers sufficiently high to 
check anything she can not sanction. After woman 
has been " declared of age " the future will in all 
probability take this form : As in the past, the ma- 
jority of women will live for their families and en- 
deavor to make home happy and comfortable ; liga- 
ture guarantees that. Later on, a number of mar- 
ried women whose inclination and circumstances in- 
duced them in youth to pursue more serious studies 
than is now the custom — perhaps with the view of 
an eventual professional application — will (even if 
this necessity does not arise) have reason to be well 
satisfied with the interest their intellectual labor 
will yield them. Their deeper comprehension of 
interests for which they formerly had only sympa- 
thies because people whom they loved pursued 
them, their more extended horizon, and their deeper 
insight into the aims and aspirations of husband and 
sons — all that can only benefit the home life. Un- 
married women will select the same professional oc- 
cupations they now select ; but a few more will be 
added to the number of eligible occupations to which 
those women will aspire w^ho are capable enough to 
enter into competition with men, and, of course, 
they will reach the same satisfactory, distinguished, 
and lucrative position that the men occupy at 
present. Among the learned professions the medi- 



180 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

cal and teacher's profession will be chosen by wo- 
men. The possibility of obtaining a secure and 
lucrative position by one's own strength will un- 
doubtedly prevent many marriages which nowa- 
days are entered into from fear of 23rivation, or be- 
cause not to be married is considered a disgrace — in 
other words, marriages will be prevented which are 
based on immoral foundations. Hence, looked at 
from this side, married life and family life can only 
gain. The fact also that the daughters of the 
house would in school be under the guidance and 
influence of women exclusively would indirectly 
aid family life. 

Thus, to an unprejudiced eye, the future appears 
not as the caricature of a world, in which cigarettes 
and torn clothes are considered attributes of woman. 
A part of this caricature might, however, become 
reality if opposition to the development that has 
become necessary is continued much longer. For 
the longer and the more violently anything is op- 
posed that I^ature dictates, the more objectionable 
and hazardous become the hybrid forms which 
the misapplied strength causes in all directions. 
The female life in Germany is a healthy one 
throughout ; if, however, the liberty of develop- 
ment that has become so necessary is denied it, the 
consequences will not be wanting. They will be 



EMANCIPATION A GHOST. 181 

miicli more dangerous than the consequences of 
"emancipation," a word that has become a veritable 
apparition. Like all ghosts, this too will prove a 
mere phantom. The events in other countries have 
proved this clearly. In most of them liberty of de- 
velopment has been granted woman after some con- 
tention, but as soon as the light ended the unpleasant 
features of emancipation, being only sequences of 
unjustified opposition, disappeared. A fact which 
is very striking in England is that the women who 
stand in the midst of the movement and practice 
so-called male professions are thoroughly womanly 
women. No doubt in Germany the strong opposi- 
tion will cause occasional unpleasant results. Up to 
date but few German women have acquired a higher 
education in foreign countries. If they intend to ac- 
quire it in Germany they meet with the greatest ob- 
stacles ; they have to go through an almost exhaust- 
ing fight mth ill-will and prejudices, and though this 
does not always injure their womanly qualities, in 
some of them is noticeable an indefinable something 
which savors of a consciousness of their exceptional 
position. It is true that position was gained by 
summoning all available energy and by removing 
many obstacles. (We have every reason to be 
proud of the representatives of our sex who in Ber- 
lin practice so-called male professions.) They are 



182 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

phenomena and feel it. The battles through which 
they passed have left an impression on their charac- 
ters, and their conduct shows it. Naturally, this 
being something that comes to the surface, it is 
noticed, and the opponents of the woman's move- 
ment make good use of the fact. That is, however, 
unavoidable in the infancy of a cause. Tlie Ger- 
mans, for instance, are at present conscious of being 
a nation, a distinction for which they bitterly fought, 
and hence are tempted to some exaggerations ; like- 
wise, the women who had to go through, and victo- 
riously passed, examinations that raised them to the 
lofty height of the upper ten thousand in spirit, are 
apt to show it a little in their conduct. But sucli 
emotions will soon disappear when to have a uni- 
versity education ceases to be an exception. If we 
would avoid the small-pox we must not shrink from 
the trilling vaccination fever. If we want to pre- 
vent serious social injuries, if we intend to leave 
unfilled the intellectual chasm that now separates 
the world of man from the world of woman in Ger- 
many and makes an agreement so difficult, occa- 
sional childish conduct, attributable to the state of 
tutelage in which woman had been left, must be 
taken into the bargain. But those who speak of 
serious dangers for the German family that are 
alleged to arise from a change of the social position 



A MISREPRESENTATION. 183 

of woman do not know woman at all, or if they do 
they use such arguments as a cloak for other and 
meaner motives. 

The same holds true with those who point 
toward serious dangers to the bodily health of wo- 
man arising from an extension of her sphere of 
activity. The Cologne Gazette (October 14, 1888) 
contains this passage : " In Berlin a great number of 
weary, gray, old women of scarcely thirty years 
creep about in the attempt at acquiring a man's 
education ; all vivacity of feeling, all womanly emo- 
tions, and physical health besides has left them. 
Truly educated and cultured men avoid them, un- 
educated ones flee them [If that is to be a weighty 
argument it is of very light weight], and the healthy 
natural women shun their society. Thus these girls 
stand like hermaphrodites between the two sexes." 

At first reading, one is inclined to laugh over 
this unmitigated nonsense, especially when one 
lives in Berlin and looks in vain for "creeping, 
weary, old women of scarcely thirty." But no, not 
quite in vain. We see such old women ; pale, hol- 
low-chested sewing girls and factory hands, poor 
working women leading emaciated children by the 
hand, and by them we are reminded at every step 
of an unpaid debt of society. We also see rich 
women who while away their days in fancy pleas- 



184 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

ures, women whose lieads are empty and whose 
hearts are dead. But among the intellectually hard- 
working women I personally know not a single one 
who could be classed among the decrepit old wo- 
men. It is possible that there are a few, and it 
would be astonishing if there were none under the 
present circumstances. And then the reply would 
suggest itself, why should not a woman have the 
right to ruin her health in pursuing intellectual 
studies or devoting herself to a satisfying and re- 
munerative profession, as well as a sewing girl or a 
factory hand, or a woman in the whirl of society ? 
But there is still another re23ly : If she is ruining 
her health, what else is the cause but the fact, that 
she is obhged to work ten times harder than might 
be necessary because the assistance offered to men 
is denied her ? 

If, as the author of that article in the Cologne 
Gazette says, she fills her head with facts from all 
branches of science without ever finding the con- 
necting link in any one science, what else is the 
cause but that she is denied assistance and limited 
by uncertain means? How difficult it is to find 
the connecting link, even when such assistance is 
given, is shown in the article mentioned above, the 
author of w^hich is incapable of analyzing primary 
and secondary causes. If the " imbittered woman," 



CONCLUSION. 185 

upon wliom the author looks down with the feel- 
ing of the proverbial Pharisee, becomes deeply un- 
happy, it is not owing to her intellectual aspira- 
tions, for her aspiration is as high and as pure as 
— say, as that of man ; but it is owing to the fact 
that she is everywhere rejected with her claim upon 
work, useful work; not even for the education 
and instruction of her own sex is she taken into 
consideration in earnest. Ko wonder if she be- 
comes imbittered. There is but one thing which 
does imbitter — vain aspiration for work and use- 
fulness. 

All of us whom kind, motherly ISTature has 
equipped with tenacity to hold our ground in bat- 
tling with adverse circumstances, who stand in the 
midst of a professional life that fills our heart, let 
us never cease fighting for our imbittered sisters, 
upon whom only men without education, hence 
without culture, can look down with derision. She 
who wants nothing for herself may demand every- 
thing for others. 

For the present I am done with what I had to 
say. I have said it in my simple way, without 
much circumlocution, since I am wanting in the 
power of framing my thoughts in rhetorical fig- 
ures. I have only this desire — that my words be 
accepted as sincere and honest ; they certainly are 



186 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. 

meant to be so. And, above all, I should like to 
have them examined without prejudice. I know 
well enough that those who have cause to fear a 
change, not feeling themselves able to cope with 
it, will protest with all their weight in the name of 
the " good olden times," in the name of the family, 
or, perchance, in the name of German science; 
but I appeal to the sense of justice and sound judg- 
ment of all independently thinking German men. 
For their benefit, I repeat Ludwig Schwerin's 
words : " The narrow limit within which the so- 
called weaker sex is kept is the result of prejudice 
inherited from our forefathers ; it is human ordi- 
nance, physiologically and psychologically unfound- 
ed, a mixture of heathenish-antique and Christian- 
scholastic views of the world. Generation after 
generation passes by careless and indifferent to the 
wrong done to woman. That which in woman is 
noble and tender can never be injured by genuine, 
true education and its resultant, the highest culture 
known." 



THE END. 



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